Chelyabinsk Meteor • High-fidelity Simulation Offers Insight into 2013 Atmospheric Disruption 10.3.23 VIDEO: The meteor is shown as a contour of the damage state (white intact, black fully-damaged). Shock-heated air nodes are displayed as points colored by their temperature. Initially fracture begins at the rear of the object. The crack then propagates forward eventually splitting the object into three coherent fragments. The fragments are disrupted shortly thereafter. Image courtesy of LLNL Pla

The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor exploded 15 miles above Earth, injuring 1,500 people and damaging 7,000 buildings. Some researchers link it to the Taurid meteor stream, a potential key to the Younger Dryas impact event. | The Randall Carlson

In February 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded 12 miles above Earth, injuring 1,500 people and damaging thousands of buildings. If the meteor had been slightly larger or hit at a steeper angle, the results could have been catastrophic, with thousands of fatalities. Despite its significance, the event is often forgotten, though it was widely captured on Russia’s dash cams, providing rare footage of the explosion. | The Randall Carlson