On the morning of February 15, at 9:30 local time, an explosion sounded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, which at first was mistaken for an aircraft explosion. A powerful flash was visible for many kilometers around. Great damage from the shock wave occurred at the Chelyabinsk zinc plant, where the wall of the warehouse collapsed and part of the glass was broken.

(19 photos of the meteorite fall in Chelyabinsk + 6 videos)

From the blast wave, 3,000 buildings were damaged on a vast territory: windows were broken, some structures and balconies collapsed. There are no dead. One way or another, about 1,000 people were injured in the explosion in six cities near Chelyabinsk.

People were left in residential buildings without windows, and on the street it was 15 degrees below zero, many received small cuts from fragments of the exploded object. Very soon it became known that the object was a meteorite that fell near the city of Satka, between Chelyabinsk and Ufa.

Scientists have expressed their opinion. Declaring that a meteor shower passed over Chelyabinsk. Immediately before the explosion, space observation instruments recorded activity in the lower layers of the atmosphere.

A source in the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Interfax about the recorded fall of an object, presumably a meteorite, which, when passing through the upper atmosphere, most likely broke into several pieces.

A flash in the sky over Chelyabinsk was observed by eyewitnesses in Yekaterinburg, which is located at a distance of two hundred kilometers from Chelyabinsk, in the Kurgan and Tyumen regions, as well as in neighboring Kazakhstan. Most likely, the meteorite fell into a reservoir near the city of Chebarkul. On the shore of the lake, located at a distance of a kilometer from the city, the place of the alleged fall was found: a funnel with a diameter of about 6 meters.

According to the latest data, the meteorite was small in size - only about 1 meter in diameter, and weighing several tons. Most likely, it consisted of iron. As a result of destruction in the atmosphere, a shock wave and radiation were formed, the fragments scattered over a long distance. The flash of the explosion was captured on video and shown to the media. There are air routes in the sky over Chelyabinsk, the planes in the air were not injured.

The official statement was made by the head of the Chelyabinsk administration in connection with an emergency - the fall of a meteorite and its fragments in the South Urals. He stated that, despite the serious damage at the zinc plant, there were no human casualties, and there was no threat of environmental danger. In the city's schools, by decision of the administration, the second shift was canceled, and employees of city enterprises were advised not to come to their workplaces until the afternoon of Friday, February 15.

In the city after the explosion of a meteorite, cellular communication does not work. NASA experts estimated the power of the meteorite explosion during the fall at three hundred kilotons of TNT, which exceeds the power of the bomb exploded over Hiroshima by twenty times. Such an incident happened for the first time in Russia.

According to Braginsky, modern academic ideas about the nature of the combustion of meteorites are very outdated. "More than three years have passed since the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, and the answer to the question of what exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk has not been received. An amazing phenomenon - a stone falls and suddenly explodes with a force of several atomic bombs, while radiation in the area Chelyabinsk remains normal," the scientist writes on his blog.

ON THIS TOPIC

The physicist is sure that the answer to the question can be obtained by looking at the test of the railgun in the United States, which was shown on the central channels in May of this year. In his opinion, this experiment demonstrated an explosion that was similar to what happened with a meteorite in the sky over Chelyabinsk.

The scientist writes that when a railgun is fired, which accelerates the projectile with the help of an electromagnetic field, an explosion occurs, resulting in a high-temperature plasma and a sound is heard directly from the shot itself. "It's amazing," the scientist notes, "there is an explosion, but there is no gunpowder!"

Braginsky believes that, as in the case of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, and when testing the railgun, the explosion is not the result of a nuclear or chemical reaction. The physicist is sure that the air itself explodes due to its critical acceleration. He casts doubt on the generally accepted assertion since Soviet times that meteorites burn up in dense layers of the atmosphere as a result of air friction. According to the scientist, this is hardly possible. The fact is that the air density in which they burn up when approaching the earth is three orders of magnitude lower than its density on the Earth itself. According to him, the difference is about the same as the difference in density between water and air under normal conditions.

To prove his theory, he compares meteorites with jet planes. As Braginsky notes, modern jet aircraft develop a speed an order of magnitude lower than the speed of meteorites when approaching the Earth. At the same time, planes fly in air much denser than where meteorites burn. However, planes do not heat up to the state of plasma, do not explode or evaporate without a trace in a few seconds.

At the same time, the scientist notes that meteorites are similar in composition to ore. However, we all know that ore does not explode from heat or pressure. It melts in blast furnaces, but there is no explosion. When a meteorite falls to the ground, Braginsky is sure, the air explodes, and not the cosmic body itself. According to him, this was clearly demonstrated by a shot from a railgun.

In addition, it is known that meteorites fall to Earth at a speed of 10-70 kilometers per second, and burn up at a height of more than 30-80 kilometers above it. Thus, they simply do not have time to heat up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. In a few seconds, it is not possible to heat up so that it burns without residue. To evaporate in a few seconds, you need a temperature an order of magnitude higher than the boiling point of metals - 3000 degrees. Everyone knows that water in a kettle can boil for a long time before it completely evaporates, and in a blast furnace, water can evaporate in a few seconds. To evaporate a stone, a temperature of about 30,000 degrees is needed - this is the temperature of the plasma in lightning. "Explosion and lightning are the same natural phenomenon, in which the air as a continuous medium is destroyed - this is the same phase transition." Obviously, no friction, oh rarefied air, is out of the question to get 30,000 degrees.

The nature of the explosion can be understood by studying phase transformations, when air is destroyed - as a continuous medium. Such a transformation occurs with the absorption of energy, according to thermodynamics: the kinetic energy of a meteorite is converted into the energy of a high-temperature plasma and a shock wave in the air. The transfer of energy is similar to a nuclear explosion, since the strong minimal interaction is responsible for the explosion of a meteorite.

In an interview with the site, the physicist noted that the version about the possibility of a meteorite explosion on December 6, 2016 in Khakassia due to a pressure drop between meteorite layers is untenable.

“In this case, you can take the Chelyabinsk meteorite from the museum, weighing half a ton, heat it and compress it as much as possible. Obviously, there will be no explosion from this anyway,” he said. Air explodes, not stone. And this phenomenon is due to the acceleration of air: if you accelerate the air above the critical acceleration, then a phase transition will occur - an explosion. Calculations show that the critical acceleration is proportional to the square root of the air density, so at a height of 70 km it is a hundred times less than on Earth. Such an acceleration is easily achieved by decelerating the meteorite in "dense layers of the atmosphere".

"This is known from astronautics: in order not to explode and not burn out when entering the dense layers of the atmosphere, it is necessary to slow down the descent vehicle very strongly and pass through the" dense layers of the atmosphere "at low speed. km is only 10 meters per second squared," he says. According to him, a meteorite moving at a speed of more than 10 km / s easily accelerates air, even rarefied, with an acceleration of more than 10 m / s2. "The meteorite has no brakes, so it explodes!" explains the physicist.

50 local time, a meteorite was seen in the sky over the southern regions of Khakassia. The fall of a celestial object was accompanied by a bright flash and a characteristic sound. At the same time, local residents reported an explosion, as well as loose walls. “It was yellow, and it burned blue from behind and disappeared abruptly. When I approached the building, there was a strong roar, very much! And the sound was like an airplane in the sky – just hissing,” said one of the eyewitnesses of the event.

This morning a meteorite exploded in the sky over the Chelyabinsk region, several fragments fell to the ground. The sight is, of course, mesmerizing. Hundreds of buildings were damaged by the blast wave, windows were shattered, some structures and balconies collapsed. No human casualties have yet been reported, but judging by the photo from the scene, the damage is serious. More than 100 people were injured in the fall of a meteorite in the Chelyabinsk region

Many car owners recorded the moment of the meteorite explosion on registrars:

“A representative of the Central Military District told RIA Novosti that no incidents with military aircraft were recorded in the sky. This phenomenon was also seen by residents of Tyumen, they describe what they saw as a luminous ball. According to them, there is still a trace of it in the sky. " - RIA

Fall time:

A photo:

Blast Wave:

Watch from 3-20

Photos of the consequences:

01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

08.

09.

10.

Hreny4 @Hrenbl4
Has anyone seen this right now!? Something fell into the area mill! food, I watch fireworks, then I see fireworks flying down and diagonally. The lower the brighter! First green then very dense orange

Anton Migilev @AntonMigilev
Just now, there is a flash and smoke in the sky… an airplane?!

Valentin @korneef
#tyumen . A bright object with a white-green glow. I was about to eat from the nuclear fungus.

Daniil Bykov
Meteor fell near Tyumen. Or a satellite. More like a meteor. Or a meteorite.

Albert Gordin
Something very large fell to the ground just in Tyumen at an awesome speed)

Alexander Podvorko @podworko
About 5 minutes ago, from the south side of the city of #Tyumen, I saw a falling luminous object, leaving a smoke plume. Who knows what it was?

Aslan Enverov
WHO SAW A COMET IN TYUMEN????? Flew FOR the Favorite HUGE!!!

@Tayga63: @tyumenroads @moskvanna I saw it explode 100 meters above the ground

@winner_74: In Chelyabinsk something flew in the sky! There was a powerful cotton! The windows in the office were shattered! Evacuated from BC. What is it?

Meteorite female eyes:
Yana February 15 13 at 08:20
Yesterday we celebrated a birthday ..))) The morning started so wonderfully. Literally a few seconds BEFORE, my mother came in and said about some incredible brightness ... after that there was such an explosion that the glass in our toilet was broken, and the window in my room flew out from the force of the wave ... I managed to call my husband, he said about the meteorite. .//// I am now visiting my parents on Rosa, ... the neighbors' flowers fell from the windowsill, they say the Henkel plant was generally damaged ...

LanaRyazanova 15 Feb 13 at 08:27
maybe they shot at Henkel?))))))))))

Guzel February 15 13 at 08:30
somehow got through to her husband, he saw everything it was a bomber plane, which, during the crash, threw off its missiles that exploded in the air, then the plane itself fell

Marina Lyubimka Alyosha February 15 13 at 07:42
I woke up with a flash! the mother-in-law did not sleep, she said she said it was so lit up as if the sun had looked through the window ... then only these explosive waves ... I was so scared, I thought the windows would fly out nafig !!

a girl was driving by in a car, stopped... she was talking to someone... we thought she saw... but she said she didn't see anything... the car was thrown up by the first blast!!! she got out and sat down far away, you never know what ...

none of us saw anything

Tatyana February 15 13 at 08:36
yes, the flash is such that the eyes hurt

What happened in Chelyabinsk?

On Friday, February 15, a rather rare event took place. In the morning, a certain object appeared in the sky at a high altitude, which left behind a trail that was clearly visible even hundreds of kilometers from Chelyabinsk. Then this object exploded. A very bright flash was captured by hundreds of video cameras. After some time (different in different settlements), sound and shock waves reached the audience. The sound of the explosion was very strong. The shock wave was so strong that tens of kilometers from the explosion there were massive damage to residential and industrial buildings. Radiation remained within the normal range. Here's what the site said on Friday "News":

“In Chelyabinsk, 725 residents of the city who suffered as a result of a meteor shower applied for medical help, 159 of them were children. This was reported in the press service of the city administration. According to her, 31 people have been hospitalized at the moment, 12 of them are children. The Russian Ministry of Health previously reported 571 victims in the Chelyabinsk region and 34 hospitalized. The press service of the Chelyabinsk administration clarified that the injuries were received mainly from glass fragments after the windows were broken by a blast wave. Medical institutions of Chelyabinsk are working in an enhanced mode, traumatologists, resuscitators, surgeons are additionally called, ITAR-TASS notes. A meteor shower was recorded on Friday morning in five regions of Russia - over the territory of the Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan regions and Bashkortostan. The places where the fragments of the meteorite fell were found in three districts of the Chelyabinsk region. Glass was shattered in almost 300 buildings…”

Other sources

Director of the Department of Planetology NASA Jim Green acknowledged that his department failed to predict the fall of the meteorite in the Chelyabinsk region. The representative of the American government explained that the capabilities of surveillance technologies have their limits - you can track as little as 15% of the total number of meteorites colliding with the Earth. In addition, Jim Green reported that a medium-sized meteorite flew over Russia about 15 meters in diameter. Space bodies of this size very rarely fall near places where many people live, according to NHK.

NTV.Ru recalls: on the eve of the meteorite caused a real panic in the Chelyabinsk region. The fireball at a speed of 64 thousand kilometers per hour entered the Earth's atmosphere and exploded at an altitude of 19-24 kilometers. We saw a terrible plume in the Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions, as well as in Kazakhstan. The power of the explosion was 300 before 500 kilotons- This is 20 times more than from the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima. About 1,200 people were injured by the meteorite, and glass was broken in many houses. Fragments of the meteorite were searched in Lake Chebarkul, but they could not find anything. It is possible that the "space guest" burned to the ground.

Even philologists can't sleep

It turned out that even Comrade Latynina (philologist) vigilantly guards the interests of the Fatherland and immediately asks tricky questions to the Minister of Defense. These questions have already been removed from the newspaper's website, but Papa Muller kept them in the form of a screenshot. The wording and essence of the questions clearly show that Com. Latynina is really a philologist, and understands absolutely nothing about what she asks questions about. Moreover, by the nature of the questions, it becomes clear that the questions were, of course, not a philologist, but a person who had not gone far in terms of literacy and considerations. We will not answer these “questions”, everything is exhaustively explained there in the Comments ...

What eyewitnesses say

“I work in the center of the city of Chelyabinsk. First, the windows trembled, heat came from the window, then a very bright flash and ... A roar. I was very frightened, then all the signals on the car squealed on the street. The first thought is a terrorist attack. Then, when I looked out the window, I saw a cloud (white) in the sky, well, I think that's it - the plane crashed. The people quickly began to evacuate. But here I have a question for the Ministry of Emergency Situations: we have radio stations in our offices, for notification of emergencies, so what? Do you think there was something there? They sing songs, everything is fine ... No one has a cellular connection, the GTS also knocked out! And what, excuse me, should ordinary citizens do? Everyone is in a panic, who screams - we leave, who - we remain in place! Madness, in short. Half an hour later they began to say: take the children away from kindergartens and schools, the windows were broken. And the radio station still sings songs ... "

I'm from Chelyabinsk. At 9:20 somewhere in the office, a bright flash lit up the windows. No one understood anything, they thought it was shorted somewhere. Minutes later (the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound) there was a roar, so that the ears were blocked. Stucco was falling from the ceiling. Everyone ran out into the street. There are no victims. Cellular communication was unavailable for 3 hours exactly. From the sound wave, the roof of one of the factories was destroyed. Now airplanes are flying in the sky, looking for a crash site.

First, let's bring astronomy back to school. And there will be answers to all questions. As an amateur astronomer, I will say that air defense is useless. It is impossible to keep track of the stones, several meters in diameter. That objects flying from the side of the Sun are invisible in the optical range, and no money is allocated for radiometry. And the fact that the sky tracking service is not funded by the state. According to the mechanics of the destruction of a meteorite, or rather a fireball, I can assure you: everything is within the normal range. Classic car. The object most likely split into 2 pieces at the time of the explosion. Plus, keep in mind that the average speed of passing an object is about 20-30 km / s. The Chelyabinsk car is similar to the Vitim car. Info on him if you're interested.

First, where is our air defense? Some kind of thing from the sky is hitting right across the city. Secondly, what are our astronomers doing, where did they look, or did this object appear right in our atmosphere in the morning? Thirdly, where are the warning systems, or the Ministry of Emergency Situations only stating the facts and sorting out the consequences? And then the fact itself is narrower, but was it a meteorite or a comet, as stated by the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Quote from RBC news: “... said astronomer, head of the department of non-stationary stars and stellar spectroscopy of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science Nikolai Chugai “I'm not sure if it's a meteor shower”...»

Explain to me what people do in this institute if they are not sure what it is and did not know anything about it at all?

Let's go further: a meteorite - two parallel stripes are clearly visible in the photo and video ... I'm not very good at physics, but as far as I know, in order to fly in parallel, objects must have the same size, the same density and the same weight, at least. If the object splits into two parts, then the trajectories still change. Then we see a flash, an increase in the smoke cloud and one line that begins to break ... And to top it off, a trail of white smoke ...

Can anyone answer all these questions for me?

Our version(Alexey Kungurov, Chelyabinsk)

The very moment of the meteorite's entry into the atmosphere at 9:20 was not seen. At that time, my wife and I were lucky enough to go into the new Magnit supermarket built in Chelyabinsk (which is located on Brothers Kashirin Street). And at the moment when we paid at the cash desk, there was a strong explosion in the street, then a series of small pops. The first impression was that a gas cylinder had exploded near the building. Two minutes later we were already on the street and began to question the workers finishing the outer facade of the building (on a manipulator with a basket).

According to the worker, what happened was very reminiscent of a comet, the radiance was so strong that start to burn your face(pay attention to this fact), and he hid behind the arm of the manipulator. A little later, explosions were heard. There was no other explanation for the first time. It took us 10 minutes to get home and the first thing we noticed was the lack of cell service. Communication interruptions continued for about 3 hours. Approximately the epicenter of the cloud in the sky fell on the southern part of Chelyabinsk in the area just south of the regional hospital.

At home, everyone woke up at us (even those who usually sleep until 10-11 o'clock), the children had a slight panic, as the house was shaking very sensitively, then they heard a strong explosion, but there is no explanation for this. Later we had to visit the kindergarten to pick up our niece. One glass cracked in it (the distance is about 10 km from the alleged epicenter of the explosion) and a lot of traveling around the city.

The paradox was as follows: the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the City Government promptly responded to the situation, recommended picking up children from schools and kindergartens, explained the nature of the incident and recommended everyone to stay at home. Employers fired people from work. But all this had an unpredictable effect: a large number of cars on the streets dramatically increased the number of accidents. There was general nervousness among the people.

On the local radio, they began to voice calls and SMS from people and comment on events. The information voiced by the radio station (if you do not move around the city and do not see the situation with your own eyes) was very reminiscent of a report from a theater of operations or a completely bombed city. I understand the condition of doctors and other people who could not leave their jobs and were forced to listen to the stream such information.

If you do not specifically look for places where the glass was knocked out, then nothing reminded of the recent incident. The only serious destruction in the city is the collapsed roof of the Zinc Plant (finished products workshop), broken display windows, individual windows in schools, YurSU (South Ural State University) and shops, broken frames and glass in houses. The paradox lies in the fact that, on the one hand, glass was broken at a distance of up to 30 kilometers, and at the same time there were entire blocks of houses where not a single glass was broken (even in the epicenter, more precisely, in the projection of the epicenter on the ground, because the explosion was high).

This is the general situation in Chelyabinsk.

You can generally sum up the event (my version).

There are many versions of the incident and many explanations for what happened. For example, NASA determined the yield of the explosion to 500 kilotons, and the height of the explosion - from 18 to 24 km. The fact that scientists can be wrong, we will now see for you. In the NASA version, the size of the meteorite is determined in 17 meters, and the weight is in 10 thousand tons. Let's check this information: if we assume that it had a shape close to a ball with a diameter of 17 meters, then its volume will be about 2572 cubic meters; and if it consisted of iron, then it will weigh more 20,000 tons, and if from granite, then about 6680 tons! This, as you understand, is significantly different from what NASA scientists have stated.

Second mistake scientists - this is the definition of the height of the explosion - over 19 km. If you look at various graphs of the relationship between air pressure and altitude ( , , ), then at an altitude of 19-20 km, the air pressure is only 41 mm Hg, which is almost 20 times less than normal atmospheric pressure, and there are no conditions for creating a shock wave, which could cause such consequences as we observed in Chelyabinsk and the region.

Therefore, we will begin here our little investigation based on known facts and video materials. Most of the material is taken from the site. Ilya Varlamov– http://zyalt.livejournal.com/722930.html

The passage of the meteorite was seen from Yekaterinburg, which is about 200 km from Chelyabinsk. And from this video you can roughly calculate the height of the passage of the meteorite. To do this, we will use the Bradis table and the rule of correspondence of angles and proportionality of triangles. The video shows that the meteorite began to glow at an apparent height above the truck (in the observation range in proportion to the size of the truck in front) about three truck sizes and later descended to a height of 2 trucks. The distance to the truck is about 100 meters. The height of the truck trailer is 2.45 m. Accordingly, the apparent height of the span is 5 meters (in the projection of the truck). If the height of the apparent span is divided by the distance, then you get 0.05 (almost 3 degrees of the apparent angle of flight above the Earth). If the obtained dimensions are multiplied by 200 km, then we get the approximate height of the completion of the meteorite flight of about 10 km(excluding calculation errors and surface curvature).

The second way to calculate the height of the explosion is to calculate, taking into account the testimony of eyewitnesses (approximately 40 seconds) and the calculated values ​​\u200b\u200bof the speed of sound in air (340 meters per second), then it turns out to be approximately 14 km, which approximately fits into the previous calculations, taking into account the errors.

The flight of the Meteorite was visible and recorded from great distances: from Tyumen - 336 km, from Yekaterinburg – 200 km, from Kamensk-Uralsky – 142 km, from Orenburg – 575 km, Satka (mountainous part of the Chelyabinsk region) - 150 km, Kostanay (Kazakhstan) - 258 km.

We need to consider the meteorite itself and calculate the power of a real explosion.

There are standard calculations ( , , , ) of damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. Why do we resort to them? For one reason - we do not have non-nuclear explosives to produce an explosion of commensurate power (500 kilotons).

The main factor influencing the calculations is that we have an explosion height of about 10-15 km. As a result, a large shock wave could not form (the pressure did not exceed 0.1 bar), that is, according to the generally accepted classification, Chelyabinsk was not destroyed even by the Zone of Weak Destruction. And the power of the explosion must be increased at times.

It is possible to indirectly estimate the strength of the explosion from information received from the builder (direct witness). He claimed that he was badly baked by the radiation. It can be assumed that if the radiation lasted a few more seconds and (or) the worker did not hide, then he would receive a burn of 1 degree, which corresponds to the power of the explosion at least 1 megaton on distance 24 km.

Preliminary conclusions

We are fully aware that the information available to us cannot claim to be complete and reliable. Nevertheless, even from it one can draw quite reasonable and reasonable conclusions: over Chelyabinsk an alien spaceship was destroyed. That is why the blast wave was so weak, and that is why very large forces of the army, police and FSB were sent to search for any remains of this ship.

On the question of how and by whom this ship was destroyed, official bodies and the media, most likely, will not be able to answer. After all, our civilization is still at an embryonic level both in the field of technology and in the field of the use of real knowledge. Therefore, we will not be able to detect and deal with such objects for a long time. However, happened fact indicates that there are ways to influence such unusual objects for us. We simply do not yet imagine the true possibilities of the human Mind, and therefore we naively believe that such a thing is impossible.

But back in 2009, an event occurred that was almost equal in “impossibility” to the incident in Chelyabinsk. Then a huge Black Pyramid(black not in terms of the color of the pyramid itself, but in terms of belonging to the black hierarchy of its passengers). This pyramid was destroyed and it was destroyed by one person - Nikolai Levashov (he spoke about this at his seminar held in Moscow in March 2010. See the answer to question N7 of the third day of the Seminar).

Later academic Nikolai Levashov installed an energy dome over Russia, which also performs the functions of protecting the planet from uninvited guests.

Thus, we consider this issue already clarified enough, because those in power will never tell us the truth anyway. And the fabrications of various journalists and philologists will be mainly of a political nature, and will have nothing to do with the truth.

It is known that the meteorite fell at a speed of 20 kilometers per second at an angle of 20 degrees. This means that he was approaching the Earth at a speed of 6.5 kilometers per second. The records show that the meteorite fell before the explosion of 10-11 seconds. This means that during this time he approached the Earth by 65 km. Since the meteorite exploded at around 25-30 km, it caught fire at an altitude of 95 km above the Earth, and this explains a lot. After all, 95 km is the height where the air begins to behave like a continuous medium.

ON THIS TOPIC

It turns out that the video recorders filmed the entire process of burning and destruction of the meteorite in the Earth's atmosphere. There is nothing behind the scenes, the meteorite calmly fell to a height of 100 km, and as soon as it entered the "dense layers of the atmosphere", it immediately caught fire. Now, literally in seconds, you can find out what happened "overboard" of the meteorite before the explosion - what pressure was in the plasma around it.

To describe the explosion in the sky over Chelyabinsk, we will show that:
1. The pressure in the plasma around the meteorite was one hundred thousand times higher than atmospheric pressure;
2. during the explosion, the pressure in the plasma instantly increased by almost a million times.
We will also explain why this happens.

The height of 95 km above the Earth is the very height at which a continuous medium is formed. And above this mark, the northern lights are observed, where the plasma quietly exists in the atmosphere and is not pushed out of it, as after an explosion or lightning. In fact, the mark of 95-100 km above the Earth is the boundary of phases or states, where, for example, you can fly at any speed, and you will not get anything for it, but if you go below the mark of 95 km at high speed, then you will definitely you'll catch fire. Why? Because with a fast movement, a meteorite gives a critical acceleration to a continuous medium and literally breaks it apart, as in an explosion. It's just that there is nothing to tear above 100 km - there is no continuous medium. When a continuous medium is destroyed, a high-temperature plasma appears, be it air or stone, when it is struck by a spark on impact.

The meteorite destroys a continuous medium all the time while it flies at high speed, and at this time a force acts on the air molecules around the meteorite, which accelerates them exponentially, as in time, and we observe a continuous or permanent explosion. Air molecules would accelerate without limit if they did not collide with each other. But they collide with each other, emit photons, and thereby slow down.

It is the photons that we see when we observe the explosion, but this is a consequence, not the cause of the explosion.

A typical explosion lasts for microseconds. During the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, we observed an explosion that lasted 10 seconds. This is an eternity compared to the usual explosion time. During this time, thermodynamic equilibrium is established in the shell of high-temperature plasma, and it is possible to determine what temperature and pressure were "outside" the meteorite. The temperature in the plasma around the meteorite is higher than in lightning. So, for example, at an altitude of 50 km, the air is a thousand times thinner than on Earth, so there are fewer collisions between molecules. Consequently, the molecules slow down less. Therefore, in the plasma of lightning, the temperature reaches 30 thousand degrees, and in the plasma around the meteorite - 100 thousand degrees.

Only 10 seconds meteorite fell in a continuous medium. During this time, he flew 200 km, but even with the naked eye you can see that he did not slow down at all on rarefied air, as we were told earlier, but, most likely, also accelerated during free fall to Earth.

It can also be seen that the version that the meteorite exploded due to the pressure difference between its front and rear parts is untenable. How can we talk about the pressure difference between the front and back of a meteorite with a diameter of 15 meters in a shell of high-temperature plasma, the diameter of which is more than a hundred meters? The size of the shell can be estimated from the video. Inside the shell, thermodynamic equilibrium is one pressure and one temperature around the meteorite.

The pressure in the plasma is much higher than the pressure that occurs due to air resistance, since the temperature in the shell around the meteorite is several orders of magnitude higher than the air temperature. A meteorite fell in open space, which he could not compress. Everything is just the opposite, high-temperature plasma creates a shock wave, the same as a rocket creates during takeoff, and this shock wave "unclenches" the air.

There is a "medical fact": the meteorite collapsed at around 25-30 km, this is clearly visible on the video. The meteorite was an ordinary chondrite, consisting mainly of iron and silicon, a fragment of which now stands in the museum of Chelyabinsk. Chondrites withstand a pressure of 1000-2000 atm, like granite, which means that at around 30 km the pressure in the plasma around the meteorite was about 1000 atm, and at around 28 km - 3000 atm. Knowing this pressure, we will now easily restore the picture of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite and explain why it exploded at around 25-28 km.

The main thing is that we can explain why the explosion of a meteorite after its destruction was equivalent to an explosion of 500 thousand tons of TNT. This is the most mysterious phenomenon of nature, which still remains one of its most amazing manifestations. Here is an interview that Academician V.E. Fortov gave immediately after the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. In it, he described how small and large meteorites burn up in "dense layers of the atmosphere." Since Fortov is the head of the Joint Institute for High Temperatures, he accurately and correctly described how meteorites burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. True, to explain this phenomenon, he used continuum mechanics, which, due to the continuity of its parameters, cannot explain critical phenomena, such as an explosion. Therefore, to explain the explosion, he made the assumption that the meteorite was composed of methane.

Why an explosion? The fact is that a meteorite (chondrite) collapses at a pressure of 3000 atm, and the explosion that was recorded in the sky over Chelyabinsk corresponded to a pressure of a billion atmospheres. How to explain the pressure of a billion atmospheres in the sky over Chelyabinsk? With the help of continuum mechanics, obviously, it will not work. Therefore, V.E. Fortov and suggested that there was methane. However, the weight of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, according to experts at the time of the explosion, was 10 thousand tons. Even if it all consisted of methane or TNT, it would be only 2% of the explosion of 500 thousand tons of TNT, which was actually observed in the sky over Chelyabinsk. Not only was there no TNT, there was no methane, but there was a simple stone, a fragment of which is in the museum, and you can touch it. How can such a phenomenon be explained?

The fact is that when the plasma shell crushed the meteorite at a mark below 30 km, it turned into a "stone cloud" and then exploded according to the laws of the explosion of a thundercloud or balloon with. Indeed, if you look at a crushed meteorite at an altitude of 28 km under a pressure of 3000 atm, then this, in fact, is a "stone cloud" consisting of molecules of iron and silicon compounds, and it exploded much stronger than gas cylinders explode under a pressure of 120 atm . The explosion of a gas cylinder is equivalent to the explosion of 1 kg of TNT, according to this entry. Therefore, the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteorite was equivalent to the explosion of 500 million gas cylinders.

Indeed, for the explosion of a cloud or a cylinder with gas, an excess critical pressure in a certain volume is needed. Critical pressure is like a detonator for a projectile. Note that it is the excess pressure that is the source of the centrally symmetric force, which accelerates the gas molecules exponentially after the destruction of the continuous medium during the explosion.

For the physics of the process, it makes no difference whether water condensed in a cloud, whether a stone was crushed, or whether gas was simply pumped into a cylinder under high pressure. The main thing is the critical pressure in a certain volume. But first, let's explain where in the plasma around the meteorite a pressure of 3000 atm formed, which crushed it into molecules. Compared to an explosion of a billion atmospheres, this is not much, but in a clear sky, 3000 atm is a very large pressure. To understand where such pressure came from, a fireball of plasma will help us, which we clearly see during the fall of a meteorite in the video.

During the fall of the meteorite, three phase transitions of the destruction of the continuous medium took place. They are so beautiful and different, and at the same time the same, like phase transitions, that it is simply impossible not to write about it. These phase transitions occurred both at the moment the meteorite entered the continuous medium at a height of 95 km, and at the moment of the explosion of the meteorite at a height of 25-30 km. We know two points when the meteorite caught fire and when it was gone. It remains only to connect these two points and describe what happened between these events.

The first phase transition of the destruction of a continuous medium occurred immediately, as soon as the meteorite entered the "dense layers of the atmosphere" at around 95 km. At this moment, a luminous dot appeared on the screen of the video recorder, as a high-temperature plasma was formed.

It was a phase transition of the destruction of air as a continuous medium - a real explosion, the same as when fired from a railgun.

Why didn't the meteorite collapse and scatter in different directions at around 95 km? The thing is that at an altitude of 95 km there is practically no air. The air density and pressure at an altitude of 95 km is a million times less than on Earth. Here is such an unexpected truth - in the "dense layers of the atmosphere" there is almost no air. And we were taught at school that meteorites burn out from friction. How can you rub against the void?

"Dense layers of the atmosphere" called the newly formed continuous medium at an altitude of 95-100 km to justify the version of the existence of friction. This name is repeated to us like a mantra or a spell, and we must pay tribute, many people believe this. A continuous medium is a state that is characterized by a general speed, for example. This is its difference from the disparate movement of individual molecules.

The plasma at around 95 km appeared as a result of a critical acceleration of a continuous medium, which leads to its destruction. After all, it is easier to destroy a continuous medium where it has just formed. At this moment, conditions arise, the same as during the formation of lightning at a critical pressure in a thunderstorm, and a high-temperature plasma appears with a temperature of the order of 100,000 degrees.

Under normal conditions on Earth, a plasma temperature of 100,000 degrees corresponds to a pressure of 100,000 atm. This correspondence follows from the relationship between temperature and pressure in nuclear explosions.

Since the pressure is proportional to the density, the pressure at 95 km will be a million times (six zeros) less than during an explosion under normal conditions, and equal to 0.1 atm. Therefore, even though the temperature during the destruction of a continuous medium at an altitude of 95 km reached 100,000 degrees, the pressure "overboard" of the meteorite was only 0.1 atm. Air molecules knock out molecules from the surface of the meteorite, and it "melts". This process is called ablation. But this process cannot do much harm to the meteorite itself at a pressure of 0.1 atm, since the number of collisions is small. It's like a pellet to an elephant.

The meteorite flies further, and as it approaches the Earth, the density of air in the atmosphere increases, and, consequently, the pressure "overboard" of the meteorite also increases. Two seconds later, at around 82 km, the pressure in the plasma around the meteorite was already on the order of 1 atm. This pressure is like on Earth, the meteorite melts, but flies further.

After 7 seconds, he was already at around 50 km, where the air density is a thousand times less than on Earth, and a thousand times more than at around 95 km. This means that, compared with a height of 95 km, the pressure in the plasma has also increased a thousand times. Therefore, at an altitude of 50 km, the pressure in the plasma around the meteorite is already about 100 atm. This is a lot of pressure. Ablation at such a pressure is so intense that small meteorites evaporate without a trace, as Academician V.E. Forts. But they do not burn out from friction against air, but as a result of evaporation from the surface in high-temperature plasma, which is formed around the meteorite as a result of a permanent explosion caused by the destruction of air as a continuous medium. It is naive to describe an explosion and high-temperature plasma by friction against rarefied air.

If we compare the density of the atmosphere at a height of 50 km with ordinary air, then this is the same as comparing air and water on Earth.

Since the Chelyabinsk meteorite was large and could not completely evaporate due to ablation, sooner or later there comes a moment when the pressure that forms in the shell of high-temperature plasma crushes the stone, even if it consists entirely of iron or granite. Plasma, like pincers, compresses the meteorite, and the closer the meteorite is to the Earth, the stronger this compression. At around 30 km, the density of air is only a hundred times less than the usual density of air on Earth, but at the same time it is ten thousand times greater than the density of air at around 95 km. Therefore, the pressure in the plasma cocoon at an altitude of 30 km is 1000 atmospheres, this is the maximum pressure that the chondrite can withstand, and at an altitude of 28 km it collapsed when the pressure in the plasma cocoon reached 3000 atm.

The process of destruction of the meteorite was recorded on video recorders. The recording shows how the luminous ball blinked for a moment at the tenth second. At this moment, the second phase transition occurred - the destruction of the meteorite as a continuous medium. This transition occurred with the absorption of the energy of the high-temperature plasma, so the light from the plasma momentarily decreased. Under a pressure of 3000 atm, the chondrite first fell apart and turned into a kind of sand, and then its grains of sand were crushed by high-temperature plasma, since it acts everywhere and you cannot hide from it.

According to experts, only hundredths of a percent of the Chelyabinsk meteorite fell to Earth. These are the fragments that managed to escape from the "fiery captivity". As a result of the destruction of the meteorite into molecules, a "stone cloud" was formed.

"Stone cloud" is akin to a thundercloud, which is formed as a result of the condensation of water vapor. But at the same time, the excess pressure in a thundercloud is about 0.1 atm, and in a "stone cloud" - 3000 atm. True, the size of the "stone cloud", fortunately, was smaller than that of a thundercloud. Most likely, V.E. Fortov, when he talked about the increase in pressure in front of the meteorite. Only the pressure of 3000 atm, at which the chondrite collapses, cannot result from compression or resistance of air as a continuous medium.

A stone cannot compress the sky. After all, it does not move in a cylinder, like a piston, but in rarefied air in open space.

The air density and pressure where the Chelyabinsk meteorite collapsed is a hundred times less than on Earth. When a meteorite falls, the pressure really increases exponentially due to the natural increase in pressure in the atmosphere - from one millionth to one hundredth of an atmosphere. The pressure that occurs with air resistance can rise to a maximum of one atmosphere. From such pressure, the meteorite cannot collapse. And in a high-temperature plasma with a temperature of up to 100,000 degrees, a pressure of thousands of atmospheres arises, which, indeed, destroyed the meteorite.

But back to our meteorite. After he was crushed by the plasma in his arms at around 28 km, she squeezed the meteorite or what was left of it even tighter, and in 4 seconds it was supposed to land in Chelyabinsk. But he did not reach Chelyabinsk. Why? The meteorite exploded, but not like a stone, stones do not explode, but like a cloud with great pressure. At the same time, seismic sensors recorded a pressure of a billion atmospheres, corresponding to an explosion of 500,000 tons of TNT.

Even if we assume that the plasma around the meteorite loosened its grip and it crumbled under a pressure of 3000 atm, then the inhabitants of Chelyabinsk would simply admire a beautiful spectacle like fireworks. However, physicists even now are afraid to say aloud the figure of a billion atmospheres in the sky over Chelyabinsk, because they simply do not understand how this can be explained by "friction" or compression of rarefied air.

After all, if the entire meteorite consisted of TNT, then such pressure would not have happened anyway.

It is obvious that after the formation of the "stone cloud" it exploded already according to the laws of the explosion of a thundercloud or a balloon with . For the explosion of a cloud with a diameter of 15 meters, 15 atmospheres is enough, and in the "stone cloud" there were 3000 atm. So it exploded according to all the laws of the genre. The pressure arising from the explosion can be estimated in the same way as we have so far calculated the pressure in the plasma around the meteorite in connection with its approach to the Earth.

Let's calculate how many times the pressure that arose on the surface of the meteorite during the formation of the "stone cloud" increased. Before the destruction of the meteorite, the density in the plasma was the same as the density of the atmosphere. At around 30 km it is a hundred times less than on Earth. After the formation of the "stone cloud", the density in the plasma on the surface of the meteorite became the same as the density of the chondrite - 7000 kg/m3. Consequently, the density has changed by almost a million times. This means that the pressure has increased almost a million times, in comparison with 3000 atm, and began to correspond to a pressure of a billion atmospheres (here, the order of numbers is important, not a specific number).

This calculation is, of course, heuristic. It does not take into account the mass of the meteorite. In reality, there is a redistribution of energy and only a part of the molecules is accelerated. Obviously, the pressure in the entire "stone cloud" cannot simultaneously increase by a million times, since the total energy of the "stone cloud" is conserved. It's just that with the help of strong interaction, the kinetic energy of molecules is almost instantly redistributed. But not like in billiards, when, after a hit, kinetic energy passes from one ball to another, and at the same time, the momentum of a stationary ball cannot be greater than that of a cue ball. The strong interaction changes the momentum of the molecules exponentially, as with .

Only a part of the molecules is accelerated exponentially and their kinetic energy increases due to a decrease in pressure in the "stone cloud". Roughly speaking, every million molecules of the "stone cloud" transfers its kinetic energy to one molecule through the action of the centrally symmetric strength of the strong interaction. Here the process of energy transfer is the same as during lightning. The energy of the thundercloud transforms into the energy of lightning, and the pressure in the thundercloud drops.

The laws of strong interaction always work this way, and this is how they differ from the transfer of energy from one molecule to another by collisions in molecular kinetic theory.

Comparison of the explosion of a "stone cloud" with the explosion of a gas cylinder is the most correct. After all, if the gas gradually left the cylinder under high pressure, then there would be no damage. But when it (gas) comes out instantly in the form of an explosion, the pressure increases much more than the pressure that was in the gas cylinder. It does not matter what gas is in the balloon or what particles the cloud consists of. For the power of the explosion, the size of the meteorite matters, or rather the mass of the "stone cloud". The larger the mass, the stronger the explosion, because more molecules can be accelerated, and thus create a pressure of a billion atmospheres.

The meteorite's kinetic energy certainly matters, but if it had simply burned out, its energy would not have led to such destruction. The kinetic energy of the Chelyabinsk meteorite is no more than the energy of an ordinary average rain. The main thing in an explosion is the manifestation of force (strong interaction), which is due to critical pressure in a certain volume. It's just that the strong interaction is still poorly understood, so its effect is measured by the TNT equivalent, and not by the centrally symmetric force, an analogue of the Coulomb force.

Thus:
1. The Chelyabinsk meteorite caught fire at around 95 km and a cocoon of plasma formed around it with a temperature of 100 thousand degrees and a pressure of 0.1 atm.
2. In 10 seconds of a meteorite fall from 95 km to 30 km, the pressure in the cocoon of plasma increased from 0.1 atm to 1000 atm, due to the natural increase in air density in the atmosphere, from one millionth to one hundredth of kg/m3.
3. At an altitude of 28 km at a pressure of 3000 atm, the meteorite collapsed and turned into a "stone cloud".
4. At around 25-26 km "stone cloud" exploded from excess pressure in the air. At the same time, the pressure increased almost a million times - up to a billion atmospheres.

When describing the explosion of the "stone cloud", we, in fact, dismantled the explosion "by molecules". Therefore, now we can try to solve the inverse problem and show how a critical pressure arises during an explosion of TNT or a nuclear explosion, which leads to a phase transition and exponential acceleration of molecules. But this work is no longer related to the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. Since during the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, neither a chemical nor a nuclear reaction was carried out, but there was a "clean explosion" - the transfer of kinetic energy from a whole stone to its molecules.

It is possible that the description of the explosion of the "stone cloud" presented here will shed light on the explosion of stars. Because a star can also be crushed by a shell of high-temperature plasma that surrounds it, and then the pressure in it will increase sharply and it will explode.

Based on research materials of physicist Alexander Braginsky.