Meteorite fans head to Russia in search of fragments

Shanghai meteorite enthusiasts have gone to Russia to find fragments of the meteorite that crashed into the country Friday, the Labor Daily reported Monday.

Meteorites, which are pieces of asteroids or comets that enter Earth's atmosphere, can be used as samples to do scientific research, said Tang Haiming, the supervisor of scientific promotion at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory's Sheshan Station.

Most meteorites that don't burn up in the atmosphere fall into the sea or dense forests, making them rare and valuable finds, Tang said.

"The meteorite in Russia is valuable because it is one of the few meteorites that can be witnessed by people," said Liu Changcai, president of the Shanghai Meteorite Enthusiasts Association, who sent the enthusiasts to Russia to collect the fragments.

The meteorite that exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, weighed about 10 tons before it hit around 9:20 am local time Friday, according to a report in the Australia-based Sydney Morning Herald.

Meteorites of that size hit the Earth once every 100 years on average, according to the report. The shock wave from the meteorite's impact blew out windows in 3,700 buildings and left about 1,200 people injured.

Liu estimated the value of the fragments that fell in Russia to be about 1,000 yuan ($160) per gram at most. Meteorites are classified into three categories: stony, iron and stony-iron, Liu told the Global Times.

Russian scientists classified the meteorite in Russia as a stony meteorite after they had found fragments Monday, according to the China Central Television Station.

Stony meteorites are different from rocks on Earth because they have a dark and glassy crust called a fusion crust which is produced when their surface melts, Liu said. Stony meteorites also contain silicates that cannot be found in rocks on Earth.