Russian meteorite fragments on exhibit in Edmonton

Parts of a massive meteor that crashed into Russia in February will be on display for the first time in Canada this week, at an exhibit in Edmonton.

More than 1,100 people were injured on Feb. 15 when thefireball streaked across the skyand exploded near the city of Chelyabinsk.

Five of the Chelyabinsk meteorite fragments will be display at the University of Alberta'sEnterprise Square in an exhibit called "When the Sky Falls,"coinciding with the 76th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Edmonton, which brings experts from around the world.

• Read a history of massive celestial strikes
• Explainer: How common are meteorite strikes?
• Read about the Tunguska event: Huge meteor rocked Siberia in 1908

"The event of Chelyabinsk was absolutely fantastic, rare and unusual, unpredictable," said Marina Ivanova, a senior scientist at the Vernadsky Institute in Moscow who helped recover the pieces and now takes care of the collection.

"It's a big phenomenon."

The meteor was 20 metres in diameter when it entered the Earths atmosphere, making it the largest object to strike the Earth since 1908.

Shock waves from its energy broke half the windows in the city ofone million.

Chris Herd, a professor and curator of the University of Albertas meteorite collection, is excited about getting a look at the Russian meteorite pieces. He said the strike was a very close call.

"If the Chelyabinsk meteoroid, the rock itself, hadnt come in at such a shallow angle, people would have died," he said.

"If it had come in a steeper angle, it would have dumped more energy directly below and almost certainly would have caused fatalities."

Scientists say meteorites contain important information about the formation of planets, comets and asteroids.

"Theyre really sort of like cosmic Rosetta stones," said Peter Brown, a professor and Canada Research Chair in meteor astronomy at the University of Western Ontario.

"Each one tells us something unique and new about the early solar system."

The exhibitruns July 30 to August 3 at the Enterprise Square Galleries (10230 Jasper Ave.). Viewing hours are noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday andnoon to 4 p.m. Saturday,