Astrophysicists from Canada claim that the mass of the meteorite stream bombarding our long-suffering planet exceeds 21 tons per year. But in most cases, this goes unnoticed, since a person can observe and find meteorites only in the habitable zone.

The share of land on the Earth's surface is only 29%, the rest of the planet is occupied by the oceans. But even from these 29%, it is necessary to take away places that are not inhabited by humans or are completely unsuitable for habitation. Therefore, finding a meteorite is a great success. However, there was a case when a meteorite itself found a person.

The case of a meteorite collision with a person

In the entire history of the fall of celestial bodies to Earth, only one officially documented case of direct contact of a meteorite with a person is known.

It happened in the USA on November 30, 1954. A four-kilogram meteorite, breaking through the roof of the house, injured the owner's leg. This means that there is still a risk that a more serious guest from outer space may fall on people's heads. I wonder what is the largest meteorite that fell on our planet?

Meteorites are divided into three categories: stony, stony-iron and iron. And each of these categories has its giants.

The largest stone meteorite

Relatively recently, on March 8, 1976, the cosmos presented the Chinese with a gift in the form of stones falling to the surface of the earth for 37 minutes. One of the fallen copies had a weight of 1.77 tons. It was the largest meteorite that fell to earth, having the structure of a stone. The incident occurred near the Chinese province of Jilin. The same name was given to the space guest.

Until now, the Jilin meteorite remains the largest stone meteorite discovered on earth.

The largest iron meteorite

The largest representative of the category of iron-stony meteorites weighed 1.5 tons. Found it in 1805 in Germany.

A colleague of the German meteorite, found in Australia, weighed only 100 kg less than the German one.

But everyone was surpassed by an iron guest from outer space, whose weight was ten times greater than all previously found meteorites.

The largest iron meteorite

In 1920, an iron meteorite with a diameter of 2.7 meters and weighing over 66 tons was discovered in the southwest of Namibia! Larger than this specimen on our planet has not yet been found. It turned out to be the largest meteorite that fell to Earth. The name was given to him in honor of the Goba West farm, whose owner stumbled upon him while cultivating the field. The approximate age of the iron block is 80 thousand years.

Today it is the largest solid block of natural iron.

In 1955, the largest meteorite that fell to earth, Goba, was declared a national monument and taken under state protection. This was a forced measure, since in 35 years, while the meteorite was in the public domain, it lost 6 tons in mass. Part of the weight was lost as a result of natural processes - erosion. But the main contribution to the process of "weight loss" was made by numerous tourists. Now you can approach the celestial body only under supervision and for a fee.

The meteorites discussed above are, of course, the largest of their kind ever discovered. But the question of which is the largest meteorite fell to earth remained open.

The meteorite that killed the dinosaurs

Everyone knows the sad story of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Scientists still argue about the cause of their death, but the version that the meteorite became the culprit of the tragedy remains the main one.

According to scientists, 65 million years ago, the Earth was hit by a huge meteorite that caused a catastrophe on a planetary scale. The meteorite fell on the territory that now belongs to Mexico - the Yucatan Peninsula, near the village of Chicxulub. Evidence of this fall was found in 1970 impact crater. But since the depression was filled with sedimentary rocks, they did not carefully examine the meteorite. And only 20 years later, scientists returned to its study.

As a result of the work carried out, it turned out that the funnel left by the meteorite has a diameter of 180 km. The diameter of the meteorite itself was about 10 km. The impact energy during the fall was 100,000 Gt in (this is comparable to the simultaneous explosion of 2,000,000 of the largest thermonuclear charges).

It is assumed that as a result of a meteorite impact, a tsunami was formed, the wave height varied from 50 to 100 meters. Dust particles raised during the impact tightly closed the Earth from the Sun for several years, which led to a sharp change in climate. and intermittent large-scale fires exacerbated the situation. An analogue of nuclear winter has come on the planet. As a result of the disaster, 75% of animal and plant species died out.

Nevertheless, officially the Chicxulub meteorite is the largest meteorite that fell to earth 65 million years ago. He practically destroyed all life on the planet. But in history, in terms of its size, it occupies only the third place.

First among the giants

Presumably 2 billion years ago, a meteorite fell to the Earth, which left a trace with a diameter of 300 km on its surface. The meteorite itself supposedly had a diameter of more than 15 km.

The crater left after the fall is located in South Africa, in the Free State province, and is called Vredefort. This is the largest impact crater, and left him the largest meteorite that fell to Earth in the entire history of our planet. In 2005, the Vredefort crater was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The largest meteorite that fell to Earth did not leave a photo as a memory of itself, but a huge scar in the form of a crater on the surface of our planet will not allow us to forget about it.

It has been noticed that the fall of meteorites, the size of which is measured at least tens of meters, occurs at intervals of hundreds of years. And larger meteorites fall even less frequently.

According to scientists, in 2029 a new guest wants to visit the Earth.

A meteorite named Apophis

The meteorite that threatens our planet was named Apophis (that was the name of the serpent god, who was the antipode of the sun god Ra in Ancient Egypt). Whether it will fall to the Earth or still miss and pass next to the planet is not known for certain. But what happens if a collision does occur?

The scenario of the collision of Apophis with the Earth

So, it is known that the diameter of Apophis is only 320 meters. When it falls to Earth, an explosion will occur, equal in its power to 15,000 bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

If Apophis hits the mainland, an impact crater will appear, having a depth of 400-500 meters and a diameter of up to 5 km. The resulting will destroy capital buildings at a distance of 50 km from the epicenter. Buildings that do not have the strength of a brick house will be destroyed at a distance of 100-150 km. A column of dust will rise to a height of several kilometers and then cover the entire planet.

The media stories about nuclear winter and the end of the world are overblown. The dimensions of the meteorite are too small for such consequences. It is possible to lower the temperature by 1-2 degrees, but after six months it will return to normal. That is, the predicted catastrophe, if it does happen, will be far from global.

If Apophis falls into the ocean, which is more likely, there will be a tsunami that will cover coastal areas. The height of the wave in this case will depend on the distance between the coast and the place where the meteorite fell. The initial wave can have a height of up to 500 meters, but if the fall of Apophis occurs in the center of the ocean, then the wave that reaches the coast will not exceed 10-20 meters. Although this is also quite serious. The storm will continue for several hours. All these events should be considered only as possible with some degree of probability. So will Apophis collide with our planet or not?

The probability of Apophis falling to Earth

Apophis will theoretically threaten our planet twice. The first time - in 2029, and then - in 2036. After conducting observations using radar installations, a group of scientists completely ruled out the possibility of a meteorite collision with the earth. As for the year 2036, today the chance of a meteorite colliding with the Earth is 1:250,000. And every year, as the accuracy of calculations increases, the probability of a collision decreases.

But even with such a probability, various options for the forced deviation of Apophis from the course are being considered. Thus, Apophis is an object of interest rather than a threat.

In conclusion, I would like to note that meteorites are strongly destroyed when they enter the earth's atmosphere. When approaching the Earth, the speed of the fall of guests from space is 10-70 km / s, and when it comes into contact with the gaseous atmosphere, which has a rather high density, the temperature of the meteorite rises to a critical one, and it simply burns out or is very much destroyed. Thus, the atmosphere of our planet is the best protector against uninvited guests.

The largest meteorites ever found on Earth June 2nd, 2015

Remember I told you, now let's talk about the largest found on Earth.

According to astronomers, about 100,000 tons of meteoritic matter falls to Earth every year. Since the meteor body entering the atmosphere begins to heat up and glow, gradually losing its mass due to ablation, we observe most of the “projectiles” from space only in the sky. Finding a fragment of a meteorite is a rarity. Only a knowledgeable specialist can recognize a celestial body of extraterrestrial origin in a randomly found "lump".

Often only a few kilograms or even grams of matter reach the surface, but sometimes practically “space bombs” weighing several tens of tons fall on Earth. In the entire history of astronomy, 7 meteorites were found on the planet, which seriously excited the whole world.

Willamette

Where: USA

Weight: 15.5 tons

The size of this meteorite is comparable to the dimensions of a small car. It is believed that he fell to Earth about 1 billion years ago. For many years, he just rusted in the middle of the forests of western Oregon, until the Indians discovered him. In 1902, the find of the Indians was in the hands of the miner Ellis Hughes, then he became the property of the Oregon Steel Company, and in 1905 Mrs. William E. Dodge bought the meteorite for 26 thousand dollars. Today, the Willamette meteorite is exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Photo 2.

Mbozi

Where: Africa

Weight: 16 tons

The meteorite reaches 3 meters in length and 1 meter in width. The meteorite was first discovered in 1930 by Johannesburg topographer W. G. Knott. Found it in the southern part of Tanzania. A hole was dug around the meteorite, and the find itself was installed on a pedestal. Now anyone can examine the space object in all its details and take a series of pictures with it.

Photo 3.

Agpalik

Where: Greenland

Weight: 20 tons

Agpalik is just a fragment of the Cape York meteorite that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago. A meteorite was found in 1963 in Agpalilika. The find is currently on permanent display at the Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen.

bakubirito

Where: Mexico

Weight: 22 tons

This "iron monster" was discovered by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey in 1892. Like most meteorites, it was named after the place where it was found. The meteorite is exhibited at the Centro de Ciencias de Sinaloa Science Center, located in the city of Culiacan.

Photo 4.

Anigito

Where: Greenland

Weight: 31 tons

This is the largest part of the Cape York meteorite, the second largest meteorite preserved on the surface of the Earth. The dimensions of the fragment are 3.4 x 2.1 x 1.7 m. The Eskimos were the discoverers of the meteorite. In 1818, the Scottish navigator John Ross, who was looking for the Northern Sea Route, learned about the meteorite from them. The meteorite is currently on display in the Arthur Ross Room of the American Museum of Natural History.

Photo 5.

El Chaco

Where: Argentina

Weight: 37 tons

Several millennia ago, a meteor shower fell near the town of Gancedo, as evidenced by numerous craters and finds of iron fragments weighing from several kilograms to many tons. Presumably the Campo del Cielo meteorite fell to Earth 4000-6000 years ago. El Chaco is the largest fragment of the Campo del Cielo iron meteorite. Found it with a metal detector in 1969 at a depth of 5 meters.

Photo 6.

Goba

Where: Africa

Weight: 60 tons

The largest meteorite ever found on Earth lies in Namibia, near the Goba West farm. According to scientists, it fell about 80 thousand years ago. It was discovered in 1920 near Grotfontein. The meteorite is 84% ​​iron, 16% nickel with a small admixture of cobalt. A tourist center has been opened near the location of the meteorite.

Let's also read a selection of the most "sensational" meteorites in the history of mankind.

1. Goba: the largest meteorite found (Namibia).

The largest meteorite found weighs more than 60 tons, and its diameter is about 3 meters. He fell into the territory of modern Namibia, presumably 80 thousand years ago. The celestial body was discovered relatively recently - in 1920, the owner of the Hoba West Farm, located in the southwest of the country, stumbled upon a huge piece of iron while plowing one of his fields. In honor of the farm, the find was named. Composed of 84% iron, the meteorite is considered the largest nugget of this metal found on Earth. In order to prevent vandalism, in 1955 it was declared a national monument, because since the discovery, the mass of Gob has decreased by 6 tons. In 1987, the owner of the farm donated the meteorite and the land on which it is located to the state, and now the government of Namibia monitors its safety.

2. Allende: the most studied among meteorites (Mexico).

The unsuspecting residents of the city of Chihuahua woke up around one in the morning on February 8, 1969. They were awakened by noise and a bright flash resulting from the fall of a 5-ton meteorite. A lot of fragments scattered over tens of kilometers, the total weight of which is estimated at 2-3 tons. The collected pieces "scattered" around the institutes and museums of the world. Scientists say that Allende (Spanish: Allende) is the largest and most studied of the recorded carbonaceous meteorites. The report of American astrophysicists from the Livermore National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy states that the age of calcium-aluminum inclusions, which are rich in meteorite, is approximately 4.6 billion years, that is, more than the age of any of the planets in the solar system.

3. Murchison meteorite: the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth (Australia).

Named after the Australian city near which it fell in 1969, the Murchison meteorite is believed to be the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth. This is due to more than 14 thousand organic compounds that make up the 108-kilogram carbonaceous stone, including at least 70 different amino acids. Research led by Philipp Schmitt-Koplin of the Institute for Environmental Chemistry in Germany claims that the meteorite contains millions of different kinds of organic molecules, which proves the existence of amino acids outside of our planet. According to scientists, the age of the meteorite is 4.65 billion years, that is, it was formed before the appearance of the Sun, whose age is estimated at 4.57 billion years.

4. Sikhote-Alin meteorite: one of the largest meteorite observed during the fall (Russia).

One of the largest meteorites in the world fell in Primorsky Krai in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in February 1947. The dazzling fireball he caused was observed in Khabarovsk and other settlements within a radius of 400 km. An iron body weighing 23 tons disintegrated in the atmosphere into many fragments in the form of a meteor shower. The fragments formed on the surface of the Earth more than 30 craters from 7 to 28 m in diameter and up to 6 meters deep. The largest fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite weighs about 1745 kg. The pilots of the Far Eastern Geological Administration were the first to report the place where the celestial body fell. Chemical analysis showed 94% iron in the composition of the meteorite.

5. ALH84001: the most famous Martian meteorite (Antarctica).

This name hides perhaps the most famous of the 34 Martian meteorites found on Earth. It was discovered on December 27, 1984 in the Alan Hills mountains in Antarctica (the name of the mountains is recorded in the name with a three-letter abbreviation). According to studies, the age of the alien body is from 3.9 to 4.5 billion years. A meteorite weighing 1.93 kg fell to Earth about 13 thousand years ago. There is a hypothesis according to which it broke away from the surface of Mars during the collision of the planet with a large cosmic body. In 1996, NASA scientists published sensational data suggesting the existence of traces of life on Mars. When scanning meteorite structures with a scanning electron microscope, microscopic structures were revealed that can also be interpreted as petrified traces of bacteria.

6. Tunguska meteorite: the most "powerful" meteorite (Russia)

One of the world's most famous meteorites hit the Earth in 1908, exploding at an altitude of 5 - 7 kilometers above Eastern Siberia. An explosion with a capacity of 40 megatons knocked down trees on an area of ​​​​more than 2 thousand square kilometers near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Its blast wave circled the globe twice, leaving behind a glow in the sky for several days. In addition, a series of consequences of the cataclysm was completed by a powerful magnetic storm that lasted five hours.

When they begin to mention this meteorite, they often remember this person:

7. Chelyabinsk meteorite: No. 2 after Tunguska (Russia)

According to NASA estimates, the Chelyabinsk meteorite is the largest known celestial body that has fallen to Earth since the Tunguska meteorite. They started talking about him on February 15 and do not stop discussing six months later. Exploding in the sky above Chelyabinsk at an altitude of 23 km, the meteorite caused a powerful shock wave, which, as in the case of the Tunguska meteorite, circled the globe twice. Before the explosion, the meteorite weighed about 10,000 tons and had a diameter of 17 meters, and after that it shattered into hundreds of fragments, the largest of which weighed half a ton. The space guest, who brought world fame to the region, is planned to be immortalized in the form of a monument. By the way The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

1. Goba: the largest meteorite found (Namibia)
The largest meteorite found weighs more than 60 tons, and its diameter is about 3 meters. He fell into the territory of modern Namibia, presumably 80 thousand years ago. The celestial body was discovered relatively recently - in 1920, the owner of the Hoba West Farm, located in the southwest of the country, stumbled upon a huge piece of iron while plowing one of his fields. In honor of the farm, the find was named. Composed of 84% iron, the meteorite is considered the largest nugget of this metal found on Earth. In order to prevent vandalism, in 1955 it was declared a national monument, because since the discovery, the mass of Gob has decreased by 6 tons. In 1987, the owner of the farm donated the meteorite and the land on which it is located to the state, and now the government of Namibia monitors its safety.

2. Allende: the most studied among meteorites (Mexico)
The unsuspecting residents of the city of Chihuahua woke up around one in the morning on February 8, 1969. They were awakened by noise and a bright flash resulting from the fall of a 5-ton meteorite. A lot of fragments scattered over tens of kilometers, the total weight of which is estimated at 2-3 tons. The collected pieces "scattered" around the institutes and museums of the world. Scientists claim that Allende (Spanish: Allende) is the largest and most studied of the recorded carbonaceous meteorites. The report of American astrophysicists from the Livermore National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy states that the age of calcium-aluminum inclusions, which are rich in meteorite, is approximately 4.6 billion years, that is, more than the age of any of the planets in the solar system.

3. Murchison meteorite: the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth (Australia)
Named after the Australian city near which it fell in 1969, the Murchison meteorite is believed to be the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth. This is due to more than 14 thousand organic compounds that make up the 108-kilogram carbonaceous stone, including at least 70 different amino acids. Research led by Philipp Schmitt-Koplin of the Institute for Environmental Chemistry in Germany claims that the meteorite contains millions of different kinds of organic molecules, which proves the existence of amino acids outside of our planet. According to scientists, the age of the meteorite is 4.65 billion years, that is, it was formed before the appearance of the Sun, whose age is estimated at 4.57 billion years.

4. Sikhote-Alin meteorite: one of the largest meteorite observed during the fall (Russia)
One of the largest meteorites in the world fell in Primorsky Krai in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in February 1947. The dazzling fireball he caused was observed in Khabarovsk and other settlements within a radius of 400 km. An iron body weighing 23 tons disintegrated in the atmosphere into many fragments in the form of a meteor shower. The fragments formed on the surface of the Earth more than 30 craters from 7 to 28 m in diameter and up to 6 meters deep. The largest fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite weighs about 1745 kg. The pilots of the Far Eastern Geological Administration were the first to report the place where the celestial body fell. Chemical analysis showed 94% iron in the composition of the meteorite.

5. ALH84001: the most famous Martian meteorite (Antarctica)
This name hides perhaps the most famous of the 34 Martian meteorites found on Earth. It was discovered on December 27, 1984 in the Alan Hills mountains in Antarctica (the name of the mountains is recorded in the name with a three-letter abbreviation). According to studies, the age of the alien body is from 3.9 to 4.5 billion years. A meteorite weighing 1.93 kg fell to Earth about 13 thousand years ago. There is a hypothesis according to which it broke away from the surface of Mars during the collision of the planet with a large cosmic body. In 1996, NASA scientists published sensational data suggesting the existence of traces of life on Mars. When scanning meteorite structures with a scanning electron microscope, microscopic structures were revealed that can also be interpreted as petrified traces of bacteria.

6. Tunguska meteorite: the most "powerful" meteorite (Russia)
One of the world's most famous meteorites hit the Earth in 1908, exploding at an altitude of 5 - 7 kilometers above Eastern Siberia. An explosion with a capacity of 40 megatons knocked down trees on an area of ​​​​more than 2 thousand square kilometers near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Its blast wave circled the globe twice, leaving behind a glow in the sky for several days. In addition, a series of consequences of the cataclysm was completed by a powerful magnetic storm that lasted five hours.

7. Chelyabinsk meteorite: No. 2 after Tunguska (Russia)
According to NASA estimates, the Chelyabinsk meteorite is the largest known celestial body that has fallen to Earth since the Tunguska meteorite. They started talking about him on February 15 and do not stop discussing six months later. Exploding in the sky above Chelyabinsk at an altitude of 23 km, the meteorite caused a powerful shock wave, which, as in the case of Tunguska, circled the globe twice. Before the explosion, the meteorite weighed about 10,000 tons and had a diameter of 17 meters, and after that it shattered into hundreds of fragments, the largest of which weighed half a ton. The space guest, who brought world fame to the region, is planned to be immortalized in the form of a monument.

Meteorite Sutter Mill, April 22, 2012
This meteorite called Sutter Mill appeared on the Earth on April 22, 2012, moving at a breakneck speed of 29 km / s. It flew over the states of Nevada and California, scattering its red-hot ones, and exploded over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, the power of yesterday's meteorite explosion when it fell on Chelyabinsk was 300 tons of TNT. Scientists have found that the Sutter Mill meteorite appeared in the early days of the existence of our solar system, and the cosmic progenitor body was formed over 4566.57 million years ago. Fragments of the Sutter Mill meteorite:

Meteor shower in China, February 11, 2012
Almost a year ago, on February 11, 2012, about a hundred meteorite stones fell over an area of ​​100 km in one of the regions of China. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. The meteorites are believed to have come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorite from Peru, September 15, 2007
This meteorite fell in Peru near Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia. Eyewitnesses claimed that at first there was a loud noise, similar to the sound of a falling plane, but then they saw a certain falling body, engulfed in fire. A bright trail from a cosmic body heated to white heat that entered the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor.

A crater 30 meters in diameter and 6 meters deep formed at the site of the fall from the explosion, from which a fountain of boiling water gushed. The meteorite probably contained poisonous substances, as 1,500 people living nearby developed severe headaches. Location of the meteorite impact in Peru:

By the way, most often stone meteorites (92.8%), consisting mainly of silicates, fall to the Earth. The meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk was iron, according to the first estimates. Fragments of the Peruvian meteorite:

Meteorite Kunya-Urgench from Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998
The meteorite fell near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench, hence its name. Before the fall, the inhabitants saw a bright light. The largest part of the meteorite, weighing 820 kg, fell into a cotton field, forming a funnel about 5 meters.

This one, more than 4 billion years old, received a certificate from the International Meteoritic Society and is considered the largest among the stone meteorites of all those that fell in the CIS and the third in the world. Fragment of the Turkmen meteorite:

Meteorite Sterlitamak, May 17, 1990
The Sterlitamak iron meteorite weighing 315 kg fell on a state farm field 20 km west of the city of Sterlitamak on the night of May 17-18, 1990. When a meteorite fell, a crater with a diameter of 10 meters was formed. First, small metal fragments were found, and only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters, the largest fragment weighing 315 kg was found. Now the meteorite (0.5 x 0.4 x 0.25 meters) is in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fragments of a meteorite. On the left is the same fragment weighing 315 kg:

The largest meteor shower, China, March 8, 1976
In March 1976, the world's largest meteorite rock shower took place in the Chinese province of Jilin, lasting 37 minutes. Space bodies fell to the earth at a speed of 12 km/sec. Fantasy on the theme of meteorites:

Then they found about a hundred meteorites, including the largest - the 1.7-ton Jilin (Girin) meteorite.

These are the pebbles that rained down from the sky on China for 37 minutes:

The meteorite fell in the Far East in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on February 12, 1947. It was crushed in the atmosphere and fell out in the form of iron rain over an area of ​​10 sq. km.

After the fall, more than 30 craters with a diameter of 7 to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 meters were formed. About 27 tons of meteorite material was collected. Pieces of iron that fell from the sky during a meteor shower:

Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920
Meet Goba - the largest meteorite ever found! Strictly speaking, it fell about 80,000 years ago. This iron giant weighs about 66 tons and has a volume of 9 cubic meters. fell in prehistoric times, and was found in Namibia in 1920 near Grotfontein.

The Goba meteorite is mainly composed of iron and is considered the heaviest of all celestial bodies of this kind that have ever appeared on Earth. It is preserved at the crash site in southwestern Africa, in Namibia, near the Goba West farm. It is also the largest piece of iron of natural origin on Earth. Since 1920, the meteorite has slightly decreased: erosion, scientific research and vandalism have done their job: the meteorite has “lost” up to 60 tons.

The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite, 1908
On June 30, 1908, at about 07:00 in the morning, a large fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei basin from the southeast to the northwest. The flight ended with an explosion at an altitude of 7-10 km above the uninhabited area of ​​the taiga. The blast wave circled the globe twice and was recorded by observatories around the world. The power of the explosion is estimated at 40-50 megatons, which corresponds to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb. The flight speed of the space giant was tens of kilometers per second. Weight - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons!

Area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River:

As a result of the explosion, trees were knocked down over an area of ​​​​more than 2,000 square meters. km, window panes in houses were broken several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. Animals were destroyed by the blast wave within a radius of about 40 km, people were injured. For several days, an intense glow of the sky and luminous clouds were observed in the territory from the Atlantic to central Siberia:

But what was it? If it was a meteorite, then a huge crater half a kilometer deep should have appeared at the site of its fall. But none of the expeditions managed to find it ... The Tunguska meteorite is, on the one hand, one of the most well-studied phenomena, on the other hand, one of the most mysterious phenomena of the past century. The celestial body exploded in the air, and no remnants of it, except for the consequences of the explosion, were found on earth.

Meteor shower of 1833
On the night of November 13, 1833, a meteor shower fell over the eastern United States. It went on continuously for 10 hours! During this time, about 240,000 meteorites of various sizes fell to the Earth's surface. The meteor shower of 1833 was the most powerful meteor shower known. Now this stream is called the Leonids in honor of the constellation Leo, against which it is visible every year in mid-November. On a much smaller scale, of course. Leonid meteor shower, November 19, 2001:

Leonid meteor shower over Monument Valley in the USA, November 19, 2012:

Every day, about 20 meteor showers pass close to the Earth. About 50 comets are known that could potentially cross the orbit of our planet. The collision of the Earth with relatively small cosmic bodies several tens of meters in size occurs once every 10 years.

Our beloved blue planet is constantly being hit by space debris, but due to the fact that most space objects burn up or fall apart in the atmosphere, this most often does not pose any serious problems. Even if some object reaches the surface of the planet, it is most often small, and the damage it causes is negligible.

However, of course, there are very rare cases when something very large flies through the atmosphere and in this case very significant damage is inflicted. Fortunately, such falls are extremely rare, but it is worth knowing about them at least in order to remember that there are forces in the Universe that can disrupt the everyday life of people in a couple of minutes. Where and when did these monsters fall to Earth? Let's turn to the geological records and find out:

10. Barringer Crater, Arizona, USA

Arizona apparently lacked the fact that they had the Grand Canyon, so about 50,000 years ago, another tourist attraction was added there when a 50-meter meteorite landed in the northern desert, which left behind a crater 1200 meters in diameter and deep at 180 meters. Scientists believe that the meteorite, which resulted in the formation of a crater, flew at a speed of about 55 thousand kilometers per hour, and caused an explosion more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, about 150 times. Some scientists initially doubted that the crater was formed by a meteorite, since the meteorite itself is not there, however, according to modern ideas of scientists, the stone simply melted during the explosion, spreading molten nickel and iron around the surrounding area.
Although its diameter is not that big, the lack of erosion makes it an impressive sight. What's more, it's one of the few meteorite craters that looks true to its origin, making it a top-notch tourist destination, just the way the universe wanted it to be.

9. Lake Bosumtwi Crater, Ghana


When someone discovers a natural lake that is almost perfectly round, it's suspicious enough. That is what Lake Bosumtwi is, reaching about 10 kilometers in diameter, and located 30 kilometers southeast of Kumasi, Ghana. The crater was formed from a collision with a meteorite with a diameter of about 500 meters, which fell to Earth about 1.3 million years ago. Attempts to study the crater in detail are quite difficult, as the lake is difficult to reach, it is surrounded by dense forest, and the local Ashanti people consider it a holy place (they believe that it is forbidden to touch the water with iron or use metal boats, which is why getting to nickel at the bottom of the lake is problematic). Still, it's one of the best-preserved craters on the planet right now, and a good example of the destructive power of megarocks from space.

8. Mistastin Lake, Labrador, Canada


The Mistatin Impact Crater, located in Canada's Labrador Province, is an impressive 17-by-11-kilometer depression in the earth that formed about 38 million years ago. The crater was likely originally much larger, but has shrunk over time due to the erosion it has undergone due to the many glaciers that have passed through Canada over the past million years. This crater is unique in that, unlike most impact craters, it is elliptical rather than round, indicating that the meteorite hit at an acute angle, rather than level like most meteorite impacts. Even more unusual is the fact that there is a small island in the middle of the lake, which may be the central rise of the complex structure of the crater.

7. Gosses Bluff, Northern Territory, Australia


This 142 million year old and 22 km diameter crater located in the center of Australia is an impressive sight both from the air and from the ground. The crater was formed as a result of the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 22 kilometers, which crashed into the Earth's surface at a speed of 65,000 kilometers per hour and formed a funnel almost 5 kilometers deep. The collision energy was about 10 to the twentieth power of Joules, so life on the continent faced great problems after this collision. The highly deformed crater is one of the most significant impact craters in the world and does not let us forget the power of a single large rock.

6. Clearwater Lakes, Quebec, Canada

Finding one impact crater is cool, but finding two impact craters next to each other is doubly cool. This is exactly what happened when an asteroid broke in two upon entering Earth's atmosphere 290 million years ago, creating two impact craters on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Since then, erosion and glaciers have severely destroyed the original craters, but what remains is still an impressive sight. The diameter of one lake is 36 kilometers, and the second is about 26 kilometers. Given that the craters formed 290 million years ago and were heavily eroded, one can only imagine how large they were originally.

5. Tunguska meteorite, Siberia, Russia


This is a controversial point, since no parts of the hypothetical meteorite remained, and what exactly fell into Siberia 105 years ago is not completely clear. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that something large and moving at high speed exploded near the Tunguska River in June 1908, leaving behind fallen trees over an area of ​​2000 square kilometers. The explosion was so strong that it was recorded by instruments even in the UK.

Due to the fact that no pieces of the meteorite were found, some believe that the object may not have been a meteorite at all, but a small part of a comet (which, if true, explains the absence of meteorite fragments). Fans of conspiracies believe that an alien spaceship actually exploded here. Although this theory is completely unfounded and is pure speculation, we have to admit that it sounds interesting.

4. Manicouagan Crater, Canada


The Manicouagan Reservoir, also known as the Eye of Quebec, is located in a crater formed 212 million years ago when an asteroid 5 kilometers in diameter hit Earth. The 100-kilometer crater that was left after the fall was destroyed by glaciers and other erosive processes, but even at the moment it remains an impressive sight. What is unique about this crater is that nature did not fill it with water, forming an almost perfectly round lake - the crater basically remained land surrounded by a ring of water. A great place to build a castle here.

3. Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada


Apparently, Canada and impact craters are very fond of each other. Singer Alanis Morrisette's hometown is a favorite place for meteorite impacts - the largest meteorite impact crater in Canada is located near Sudbury, Ontario. This crater is already 1.85 billion years old, and its dimensions are 65 kilometers long, 25 wide and 14 deep - 162 thousand people live here, and many mining enterprises are located, who discovered a century ago that the crater is very rich in nickel due to for the fallen asteroid. The crater is so rich in this element that about 10% of the world's nickel production is obtained here.

2. Chicxulub Crater, Mexico


Perhaps the fall of this meteorite caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, but this is definitely the most powerful collision with an asteroid in the entire history of the Earth. The impact occurred about 65 million years ago, when an asteroid the size of a small city crashed into Earth with an energy of 100 teratonnes of TNT. For those who like hard data, that's roughly 1 billion kilotons. Compare this energy with the 20 kiloton atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the impact of this collision becomes clearer.

The impact not only created a 168-kilometer diameter crater, but also caused megatsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions all over the Earth, greatly altering the environment and dooming the dinosaurs (and apparently many other creatures). This vast crater, located on the Yucatan Peninsula near the village of Chicxulub (after which the crater was named), can only be seen from space, which is why scientists discovered it relatively recently.

1. Vredefort Dome Crater, South Africa

Although the Chicxulub crater is better known, compared to the 300 kilometers wide Vredefort crater in the Republic of South Africa, it is a common pothole. Vredefort is currently the largest impact crater on Earth. Fortunately, the meteorite / asteroid that fell 2 billion years ago (its diameter was about 10 kilometers) did not cause significant harm to life on Earth, since multicellular organisms did not yet exist at that time. The collision no doubt greatly changed the climate of the Earth, but there was no one to notice it.

At the moment, the original crater is heavily eroded, but from space, its remnants look impressive and are a great visual example of how scary the universe can be.