Chelyabinsk meteorite being studied by scientists from the Faculty of Science












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            * Chelyabinsk meteorite being studied by scientists from the Faculty of Science
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            As soon as the news that a large meteorite had fallen near the town of Chelyabinsk started

            around the world on February 15, Dr. Gunther Kletetschka, Ph.D., from the CU Faculty of Sc
            organising an expedition to Russia. Together with his student Ladislav Nábělek and Darja K
            specialist in international relations, they were the first foreign researchers to carry ou

            in the area where the meteorite fell. One of the things they are searching for is, for exa
            some hitherto unknown organism didn’t fall to Earth with the meteorite.
            “The first thing that occurred to me when I heard about it was that we had to get there as

            possible. The longer the meteorite lay there, the fewer traces would be left for us to stu
            surprised that we were, after the two Russian research teams, the first foreign expedition

            said Dr. Kletetschka, who is a member of the Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geolog
            Geophysics of the CU Faculty of Science.
            The Faculty of Science team reached Chebarkul Lake, into which the meteorite fell, on 6 Ma

            days after the meteorite, travelling at a speed of almost 500 kilometres per hour, broke t
            of ice covering the lake, falling to the bottom, ten metres below the surface.
            The very fact that the meteorite penetrated the crust and fell to the bottom of the lake i

            things interesting Dr. Kletetschka. “There are several places in our solar system where we
            is ice. These are Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and the planet Mars, which has a number of ice f
            morphology of the hole, which was photographed shortly after the meteorite fell, looks ver

            one type of crater on Mars. We could, through the use of analogies, determine how some fea
            Europa were created,” explained Dr. Kletetschka, who had previously worked with NASA on th
            technical fittings for the Curiosity probe, which is currently exploring Mars.

            A further area of interest for Kletetschka is the study of organisms living in extreme con
            example tardigrades, which are the only organisms on Earth able to live in a vacuum or at 
            i.e. minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. Tardigrades are even able to survive hibernation with n

            It is precisely this kind of organism that might be able to reach Earth via a meteorite. “
            than ten metres can preserve within themselves organisms or molecules resistant to harmful
            subsequently conveying them to another planet, in this case Earth. Several teams have alre

            trying to find out how it is possible to survive in space. Organisms like these can give u
            speculates Dr. Kletetschka, adding that he would also be studying the meteorite’s magnetic
            which could reveal the conditions under which the asteroid was created.

            However, no-one has yet seen the meteorite up close. Divers searching in Chebarkul Lake ha
            to find it. “The Russians’ hypothesis was that the meteorite fell from a height and went s
            The divers therefore looked for the meteorite directly beneath the hole. According to the 

            of our colleagues from the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondř
            the meteorite was travelling at a speed of almost five hundred kilometres per hour when it
            and that the angle of fall was 16.5 degrees, which is a very acute angle. From this we can

            the meteorite cannot be directly beneath the hole in the ice,” added Dr. Kletetschka, who 
            theory in situ, where he carried out a magnetic test. “We used a magnetometer to create a 
            found that the meteorite is much further away than originally thought,” he noted. With the

            students, the Czech team set up a network of gathering points at the likely impact point a
            area; researchers drilled holes in the ice and took samples of sediment, which are current
            analysis in the laboratories of the Faculty of Science.

            According to Dr. Kletetschka’s estimates the meteorite weighs a minimum half a tonne (furt
            smaller, fragments of the original meteorite were strewn over the whole surrounding area o
            Chelyabinsk) and is now encased in a kind of porcelain crust. “The meteorite landed in cla

            hardened, as the surface of the meteorite was, at the moment of impact, heated to a high t
            The clay therefore formed a protective, porcelain crust, protecting it from earthly contam
            explained.

            The meteorite will have to be retrieved from the lake complete with the layer of clay enve
            layer could, in itself, contain further valuable information on temperature to be gleaned 
            However, it is not yet clear when the town of Chebarkul will permit the raising of the met

            lake under specialist supervision. “At the moment we prefer freezing the meteorite with th
            and then lifting out the whole unit, meaning it could be removed without causing too much 
            we’d just have to defrost it,” suggested Dr. Kletetschka, noting that he would definitely 

            it was pulled out.