A Massive Chunk Of What Might Be 'The Russian Meteorite' Was Just Pulled From A Frozen Lake

On Wednesday, Russian divers recovered from a frozen lake the largest-known chunk of what's believed to be from the meteor that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsky in February.

The tiny asteroid, which entered Earth's atmosphere weighing around 11,000 tons, burst into small pieces as it burned up, producing a shock wave on the ground that shattered windows and injured more than 1,000 people from flying glass, while raining down fragments of rock across a 60-mile long region.

Most fragments of the meteor - know as meteorites once they hit the ground - were believed to have sunk to the bottom of Lake Chebarkul, a frozen lake in the Chelyabinsky region. Recovery workers initially turned up empty-handed.

The rock that was just pulled from the Russian lake was found at the beginning of September. After it was dragged from the water, it measured five-feet long, and weighed around 1,255 pounds before splitting into three pieces and breaking the scale that it was being weighed on, according to the AFP.

Scientists still need to verify that the hunk of rock came from space and was actually part of the Chelyabinsky meteor, although many features - like fractures and a crust that indicates it survived the heat of passing through Earth's atmosphere - suggest that it is a true meteorite. A small sample will be X-rayed to determine its mineral composition, according to RT.

Over 12 pieces of rock have been pulled from Lake Chebarkul since the meteor explosion, but only one-third of those turned out to be real meteorites, according to the AFP.