On this day in space: Feb. 15, 2013: Meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia

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On Feb. 15, 2013, a small asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.

On Feb. 15, 2013, a small asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The Chelyabinsk meteor streaked through the sky on Feb. 15, 2013, injuring hundreds, damaging buildings, and bringing attention to the Earth as a potential target for rocky space bodies. (Image credit: M. Ahmetvaleev)

The Chelyabinsk meteor explosion was more powerful than a nuclear bomb, and it was so bright that it briefly outshone the sun! No one saw this giant space rock coming. At 60 feet in diameter, it was the largest asteroid blast in more than 100 years.

It entered Earth's atmosphere traveling more than 60 times the speed of sound and exploded into countless pieces. The biggest fragments were later recovered in Lake Chebarkul.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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