The Time When A Huge Bright Fireball From Space Exploded After Entering Earth's Atmosphere | The Biggest Explosion Ever Known After Tunguska Event

On 15 February 2013, an asteroid measuring about 20 m in diameter entered the Earth's atmosphere, heading towards a city in Russia at a speed of 19 km/sec. Falling at such a high speed, the asteroid luckily exploded about 30 km above the surface of the earth, producing an extremely bright fireball in the sky with an explosion behind it over a city, emitting light briefly brighter than the Sun, visible up to 100 km away. The explosion was so fierce that six cities across the region came under its grip and more than 3,000 houses were damaged as glass from windows shattered by the shock wave, injuring up to 1,500 people. 

The meteor exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, causing its pieces to break into many parts and scatter in the surrounding areas, thus avoiding a major collision, giving it the name "Chelyabinsk meteor". It was commonly called a meteor because this visible occurrence was caused by the passage of an asteroid or meteoroid (a small piece of an asteroid or a comet), surviving its trip through the earth's atmosphere and burning up, appearing as a streak of light. But if this object had reached the ground, it would have been called a meteorite. Meteors are also known as fireballs or “shooting stars”.

But if the explosion has occurred at a height of around 8 km from the earth's surface, then in 2013 those cities of Russia would have disappeared from the map. In other words, if this asteroid had measured 60 m in diameter instead of 20 m, it would have exploded not 30 km above but at a height of just 8 km, which would have caused immense destruction on earth. The Chelyabinsk meteor explosion was the largest since the Tunguska event of 1908. According to NASA, this meteor exploded with 30 times more power than the atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima.

Meteors usually produce small amounts of dust, but they are not readily available. Because either they are too small to be lost, fall into the water, or become polluted by the environment. But the dust from the Chelyabinsk meteor remained in the atmosphere for more than four days, and then started raining on the surface. Fortunately, the fall of these dust particles was followed by snowfall, which preserved these particles until they were discovered by scientists. 

Looking at these powerful events, it seems that this space is not calm at all, asteroids ranging from the size of an apple to several kilometers in diameter are roaming freely here, with some of the smaller asteroids hitting Earth daily, but due to atmospheric pressure and friction, they don't reach the earth's surface. But on the other hand, if the size of the asteroid is 60 meters or more in diameter, then it cannot be destroyed by the Earth's atmosphere, and its chances of hitting the Earth increase.