[meteorite-list] Nature Magazine Honors Urals Meteorite Hunter (Chelyabinsk)

[Ron Baalke]

http://rbth.ru/science_and_tech/2013/12/23/nature_magazine_honors_urals_meteorite_hunter_32851.html

Nature magazine honors Urals meteorite hunter
Ekaterina Turysheva
December 23, 2013 

Russian scientist Viktor Grokhovskiy named Nature magazine's Top 10 people 
of the year report for his research on the Chelyabinsk meteorite.

[Photo]
Viktor Grokhovskiy led an exhibition to collect more than 700 fragments 
of Chelyabinsk meteorite. Source: RG

A British science journal has named Russian scientist Viktor Grokhovskiy 
as one of 10 people who made a difference in the world of science in 2013. 
Nature magazine listed Grokhovskiy in its annual "Nature's 10" for his 
research on meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk on February 15.

Grokhovskiy, a professor at the Urals Federal University and a member 
of the Russian Academy of Sciences Committee for Meteorites, said the 
recognition came as a welcomed surprise.

"It's like a Nobel Prize for us, although you don't actually win a prize. 
But it is very nice; we are very happy," he said. "At the end of the day 
though it is not only me who deserves the credit, a great number of people, 
my colleagues, contributed to these achievements."

Grokhovskiy said he received hints that something was going on about two 
weeks ago, when he began to receive phone calls from the journal asking 
for a photo but without giving a reason, he said.

The meteorite, which came down in the Chelyabinsk region, approached the 
planet from a direction that is invisible to telescopes on Earth and took 
astronomers by surprise. Two days later, Grokhovskiy had efficiently calculated 
the trajectory of the meteorite and where the fragments would have landed. 
He then led an exhibition to collect more than 700 fragments of this celestial 
body.

Students, postgraduate students and lecturers from the 'Nanotech' Nauchno-Issledovatelskiy 
Tsentr (Scientific Research Centre) had already discovered the first fragments 
by February 17.

Scientists installed a web camera overnight and showed the whole world 
debris from the meteorite on February 18. It was then that they established 
the type of matter and calculated the final trajectory of this "guest 
from outer space" to define where the main part would have come down.

On the basis of these calculations Grokhovskiy's expedition led scientists 
to Lake Chebarukl, from where smaller fragments weighing 5.5 kilograms 
as well as a large fragment weighing 570 kilograms were removed. When 
the biggest fragment was raised from the bottom of the lake on October 
17, Viktor Grokhovskiy said he was still unable to get over the size.

"Less matter was brought back from the Moon than we discovered in one 
lake!" he said.

Studies into this alien from outer space are still ongoing.

"We are now checking to see if any of our hypothesis can be confirmed. 
I cannot say which hypothesis as it's an academic secret. If I were to 
tell you now, other scientists could take up the theses, competition in 
the scientific world is very fierce," Grokhovskiy said.

Based on materials from Rossiyskaya Gazeta.