Earth is continuously colliding with fragments of asteroids and comets of various sizes. The largest encounter in historical times occurred over the Tunguska river in Siberia in 1908, producing an airburst of energy equivalent to 5-15 megatons of trinitrotoluene (1 kiloton of trinitrotoluene represents an energy of 4.185 × 10(12) joules). Until recently, the next most energetic airburst events occurred over Indonesia in 2009 and near the Marshall Islands in 1994, both with energies of several tens of kilotons. Here we report an analysis of selected video records of the Chelyabinsk superbolide of 15 February 2013, with energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of trinitrotoluene, and details of its atmospheric passage. We found that its orbit was similar to the orbit of the two-kilometre-diameter asteroid 86039 (1999 NC43), to a degree of statistical significance sufficient to suggest that the two were once part of the same object. The bulk strength--the ability to resist breakage--of the Chelyabinsk asteroid, of about one megapascal, was similar to that of smaller meteoroids and corresponds to a heavily fractured single stone. The asteroid broke into small pieces between the altitudes of 45 and 30 kilometres, preventing more-serious damage on the ground. The total mass of surviving fragments larger than 100 grams was lower than expected.

Abstract-The Ko sice meteorite fall occurred in eastern Slovakia on February 28, 2010, 22:25 UT. The very bright bolide was imaged by three security video cameras from Hungary. Detailed bolide light curves were obtained through clouds by radiometers on seven cameras of the European Fireball Network. Records of sonic waves were found on six seismic and four infrasonic stations. An atmospheric dust cloud was observed the next morning before sunrise. After careful calibration, the video records were used to compute the bolide trajectory and velocity. The meteoroid, of estimated mass of 3500 kg, entered the atmosphere with a velocity of 15 km s À1 on a trajectory with a slope of 60°to the horizontal. The largest fragment ceased to be visible at a height of 17 km, where it was decelerated to 4.5 km s À1 . A maximum brightness of absolute stellar magnitude about À18 was reached at a height of 36 km. We developed a detailed model of meteoroid atmospheric fragmentation to fit the observed light curve and deceleration. We found that Ko sice was a weak meteoroid, which started to fragment under the dynamic pressure of only 0.1 MPa and fragmented heavily under 1 MPa. In total, 78 meteorites were recovered in the predicted fall area during official searches. Other meteorites were found by private collectors. Known meteorite masses ranged from 0.56 g to 2.37 kg. The meteorites were classified as ordinary chondrites of type H5 and shock stage S3. The heliocentric orbit had a relatively large semimajor axis of 2.7 AU and aphelion distance of 4.5 AE 0.5 AU. Backward numerical integration of the preimpact orbit indicates possible large variations of the orbital elements in the past due to resonances with Jupiter.

Abstract-Detailed analysis of the fragmentation of the Morávka meteoroid during the atmospheric entry is presented. The analysis is based on the measurement of trajectories and decelerations of fragments seen in a video and at the locations of energetic fragmentation events from seismic data obtained at several stations in the vicinity of the fireball trajectory. About 100 individual fragments are seen on video frames. Significant deceleration of the fireball at heights of ~45 km revealed that the meteoroid had already fragmented into ~10 pieces with masses of 100-200 kg, though the fireball still appeared as a single object. At heights of 37-29 km, all primary fragments broke-up again under dynamic pressures up to 5 MPa. The cascade fragmentation then continued, even though smaller pieces breaking off from the larger masses were increasingly decelerated and the dynamic pressure acting upon them decreased. At each fragmentation, a significant part of the mass was lost in the form of dust or tiny particles. This was the dominant process of mass loss. The continuous ablation due to melting and evaporation of the meteoroid surface was less efficient with a corresponding ablation coefficient of only 0.003 s 2 km −2 . During fragmentation, some pieces achieved lateral velocities up to 300 m/s, about an order of magnitude more than can be explained by aerodynamic loading. The fragmentation continued even after ablation ceased, as demonstrated by the incomplete fusion crust covering all recovered fragments. We estimate that several hundreds of meteorites of a total mass of 100 kg landed, mostly in a mountainous area not suitable for systematic meteorite searches. Six meteorites with a total mass of 1.4 kg were recovered up to the end of May 2003. Their positions are consistent with the calculated strewn field.

Abstract-The sound production from the Morávka fireball has been examined in detail making use of infrasound and seismic data. A detailed analysis of the production and propagation of sonic waves during the atmospheric entry of the Morávka meteoroid demonstrates that the acoustic energy was produced both by the hypersonic flight of the meteoroid (producing a cylindrical blast wave) and by individual fragmentation events of the meteoroid, which acted as small explosions (producing quasispherical shock waves). The deviation of the ray normals for the fragmentation events was found to be as much as 30° beyond that expected from a purely cylindrical line source blast. The main fragmentation of the bolide was confined to heights above 30 km with a possible maximum in acoustic energy production near 38 km. Seismic stations recorded both the direct arrival of the airwaves (the strongest signal) as well as air-coupled P-waves and Rayleigh waves (earlier signals). In addition, deep underground stations detected the seismic signature of the fireball. The seismic data alone permit reconstruction of the fireball trajectory to a precision on the order of a few degrees. The velocity of the meteoroid is much less well-determined by these seismic data. The more distant infrasonic station detected 3 distinct signals from the fireball, identified as a thermospheric return, a stratospheric return, and an unusual mode propagating through the stratosphere horizontally and then leaking to the receiver.

In this first paper from a series of 4 papers devoted to the Morávka meteorite fall, we describe the circumstances of the fall and determine the fireball trajectory and orbit from calibrated video records. Morávka becomes one of only 6 meteorites with a known orbit. The slope of the trajectory was 20.4°t o the horizontal, the initial velocity was 22.5 km/s, and the terminal height of the fireball was 21 km. The semimajor axis of the orbit was 1.85 AU, the perihelion distance was 0.982 AU, and the inclination was 32.2°. The fireball reached an absolute visual magnitude of −20 at a height of 33 km.