Biggest Piece of 55-Foot Meteor Found So Far: 7mm

And 7mm happens to be just .26 inches
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2013 9:02 AM CST
Biggest Piece of 55-Foot Meteor Found So Far: 7mm
In this frame grab made from dashboard camera video, a meteor streaks through the sky over Chelyabinsk.   (AP Photo/AP Video)

The numbers are pretty staggering: The meteor that rocked Russia last week was the biggest since 1908, at 55 feet in diameter, estimates NASA. But the largest meteorite found to date by scientists with Ural Federal University measures just 0.26 inches in diameter, reports the Wall Street Journal. And a NASA scientist says something a little bigger should be out there: "When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones."

Viktor Grokhovsky, who works for UFU, agrees; his team has thus far plucked 53 fragments from the ice-covered Chebarkul Lake, reports the AP. Friday's meteor left a 20-foot-wide hole in the ice covering the lake, and divers say they found nothing at the bottom. "They just don't know what they are looking for," says Grokhovsky, who believes a piece as large as two feet could eventually be found there. (In the meantime, a Russian politician is blaming ... John Kerry.)

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