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Meteorite Crashes in Russia

A meteor that exploded over Russia's Ural mountains and sent fireballs blazing to earth has set off a rush to find fragments ofthe space rock which hunters hope could fetch thousands of dollars a piece.
Friday's blast and ensuing shockwave shattered windows, injured almost 1,200people and caused about $33 million worth of damage, said local authorities.
It also started a "meteorite rush" around the industrial city of Chelyabinsk, 950miles east of Moscow, where groups of people have started combing through the snow and ice.
One amateur space enthusiast estimated chunks could be worth anythingup to $2,200 per gram more than 40 times the current cost of gold.

A research worker of the Ural Federal University inspects a fragment.
"The price ishard to say yet ... The fewer meteorites that are recovered, the higher their price," said Dmitry Kachkalin, a member of the Russian Society of Amateur MeteoriteLovers. Meteorites are parts of a meteor that have fallen to earth.
Scientists at the Urals Federal University were the first to announce a significant find -53 small, stony, black objects around Lake Chebarkul, near Chelyabinsk, which tests confirmed were small meteorites.
The main fireball streaked across thesky at a speed of about 30 km (19 miles) per second, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, before crashing into the snowy wastes.
More than 20,000 peopletook part in search and clean-up operations at the weekend in and around Chelyabinsk, which is in the heart of a region packed with industrial military plants.