"Meteoric Rain" exhibition opens in Yekaterinburg

The “Meteoric Rain” exhibition has opened in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Region. Nearly 5,000 meteorites fall on the ground every year. The Goba Meteorite that was found in Namibia - the largest of all – weighs approximately 66 tons.

125 meteorites have been discovered in Russia over the past 250 years. Visitors can see the most interesting of them at the “Meteoric Rain” exhibition that is currently underway at the Ural Geology Museum in Yekaterinburg. There is a large variety of meteorites there, including stone, iron, and stony-iron meteorites, which we do not come across very often today. A 150-kilogram fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite is really the pearl of the of the Yekaterinburg exhibition. It is 200 years older than the Earth, and its flight to the Earth continued for 1, 200,000 years, when it finally fell. In an interview with the Voice of Russia Director of the Ural Geology Museum Dmitry Kleimenov says.

"When meteorites enter the Earth’s atmosphere, at an altitude of 10 kilometres they may fall on the ground in the form of stones. Usually, meteorites bear the names of places where they fall. For example, big fragments of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite that fell in the Far East are displayed at the exhibition in Yekaterinburg. Expeditions for meteorites are sent even to the Antarctic Region because there practically any stone that is found on the ice surface is regarded as a meteorite."

A meteorite containing carbohydrates that was found in Antarctica in 1994, possibly, offers proof that bacterial life exists on Mars. There is a special committee in Russia that examines celestial bodies. By the way, it has one of the best collections of meteorites in Europe

Even in the ancient times people knew that there existed meteorites in the world. The meteorite that is often referred to as the Black Stone is carefully kept in Mecca. It is installed into the wall of the Kaaba Cathedral, and Mohammedans go to Mecca to prey there. Besides the biblical legends about Sodom and Gomorrah, there exists only one case when a meteorite hit a person. This occurred on November 30th, 1954, in Alabama, when a 4-kilogram celestial body fell on the roof of a house, where Ann Elizabeth Hodges lived and ricocheted off her. As a result, the woman was traumatized.

Source: english.ruvr.Russia