Massive Meteorite Pulled from Russian Lake

Divers have uncovered a half-ton chunk of the fireball that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February.

Scientists say the latest find represents the largest fragment discovered as of yet, breaking the scale under its weight, the BBC reported.

In fact, Sergey Zamozdra, an associate professor at Chelyabinsk State University, told the Interfax news agency that the chunk of space rock is likely one of the top 10 largest meteorite fragments ever discovered.

Roughly 1.5 meters long, the rock broke into several pieces as it was lifted from the ground with levers and ropes.

"The rock had a fracture when we found it," one unnamed scientist told the lifenews.ru website in a live broadcast, the AFP reported. "It weighed 570 kilogrammes before the pieces fell off. And then the scale broke."

In all, the scientist estimated that the entire object weighed more than 600 kilograms.

Caroline Smith, a curator of meteorites at London's Natural HIstory Museum, said it was clear the object was a meteorite based on several features, including ones known as fusion crust and regmaglypts.

"Fusion crust forms as the meteoroid is travelling through the atmosphere as a fireball," she told the BBC. "The outer surface gets so hot it melts the rock to form a dark, glassy surface crust which we term a fusion crust. Regmaglypts are the indentations, that look a bit like thumbprints, also seen on the surface of the meteorite."

According to NASA experts, the meteor originally weighed some 10,000 tons when it first entered Earth's atmosphere Feb. 15. The event released the explosive power equivalent to 460 kilotons of TNT, making it the largest explosion ever recorded by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization's infrared sensors, Nature reported. More than 1,000 people were reportedly injured in the resulting shockwave.

To see a picture of the newly recovered meteorite, click here.