Still from amateur video of “meteorite rain” by Fed Potapow
Eight months after a huge meteor streaked through the Russian sky and caused a shockwave that left 1,200 people injured, divers have pulled a half-tonne suspected meteorite from a lake in the Urals.
The meteorite broke up in the atmosphere, causing the shockwave and scattering debris across the Russian region of Chelyabinsk, with this piece the biggest to have been found so far.
The operation to find and raise the suspceted meteor from lake Chebarkul was filmed live for Russian television, with divers wrapping the 1.5m piece of possible space debris underwater before bringing it slowly to the surface using a series of pullies and ropes.
The suspected meteor broke into three big pieces as it was being weighed, with the whole mass breaking the scales at 570kg
It will take scientists a few days to determine whether the piece of rock did come from space.