CHELYABINSK, July 11. /TASS/. A meteor spotted in the sky over Russia's Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals is part of a common occurrence and poses no threat to people, a Russian scientist told TASS.
The meteor was seen over the region's skies early on July 11. The celestial body appeared suddenly and vanished just as quickly into the night, local media reported, citing a video released by a participant in the Starvisor amateur project of automated night sky observation.
"There is nothing extraordinary, since we always have [meteorite] falls here," said Viktor Grokhovsky, chief researcher of the Extra terra consortium laboratory of the Ural Federal University. "The answer [to why meteors are observed precisely in the Chelyabinsk Region] is simple: we have a major bolide network [of surveillance cameras] in the Urals, which makes it possible to observe the sky, while other parts of Russia - except for the south - lack such a network. We have Starvision cameras, enthusiasts installed them, now they monitor meteors and keep an eye on everything that happens in the sky," Grokhovsky said, adding that the phenomenon poses no risk to people.
The meteor could have flown over regions other than the Chelyabinsk Region, the scientist specified. It could take several days to establish its location, he said. "There is no assurance that the meteor made its landfall in the Chelyabinsk Region, the estimates are yet to be received - it could have headed towards the Kurgan Region or the Sverdlovsk Region as well. There is limited data to process as of now," he said.