Scientists Reconstruct Meteor's Journey To Earth

Scientists have reconstructed the orbit of the meteor that blazed across the Russian sky earlier this month.

After entering the Earth's atmosphere, the meteor is thought to have travelled hundreds of miles before exploding above Chelyabinsk.

The reconstruction is designed to illustrate how the body of the meteor came to shower fragments of rock over a large area of Western Siberia.

The video plots the orbits of Earth, Mars and the meteor itself in the period prior to its encounter with our planet.

Physicists at the University of Antioquia in Colombia used evidence from a CCTV camera in Revolution Square, Chelyabinsk, as well as witnesses in the nearby city of Korkino, to chart its progress across the Russian sky.

They then used algorithms known as Monte Carlo methods to determine the most probable path of the meteor before it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Evidence from the reconstruction has led physicists to classify the meteor among the near-Earth asteroids, in particular the family known as Apollo asteroids.

This group of asteroids, named after the first to be discovered 1862 Apollo, have orbits which cross paths with the Earth's own orbit.

Some 1,100 people were injured when the meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky with a blinding flash and booming shockwave.

Many schoolchildren were hurt by flying glass as their classroom windows were blown in. Witnesses described feeling a pressure wave and hearing explosions overhead.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at 33,000mph (54,000kph) - 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet - and shattered into pieces around 18-32 miles (30-50km) high in the sky.