Case file · Cosmic event
Chelyabinsk meteor
An asteroid about 18 m across exploded over Russia's southern Urals, briefly outshining the Sun and injuring about 1,500 people with broken glass.
2013 CE · 55.15, 61.41 · status: official
The account
On the morning of 15 February 2013 the superbolide entered at about 19 km/s and burst roughly 30 km up over Chelyabinsk Oblast. Dashcams across the region filmed it. Some online videos claimed a 'UFO' had shot the meteor apart.
The sceptical view
The 'UFO' clips show debris and camera artefacts; the event is one of the best-recorded asteroid impacts in history.