posted 04-16-2023 12:46 PM               

Space Cover 697: Chelyabinsk Meteorite Event — 10th anniversary

Chelyabinsk meteorite event was the biggest since Tunguska in 1908. On the morning of Feb 15, 2013 a small asteroid (around 17 meters in diameter) entered Earth atmosphere, disintegrated and exploded at around 20km above Chelyabinsk area in Russia. The explosion yield was calculated as equivalent to 200 kiloton of TNT (although some sources estimate it as 500kT). Huge amount of small debris fell over the Etkulsk district while the biggest piece (over 500 kilograms) got into the Chebarkul Lake and was extracted half a year later.

This event was highly publicized. It was the most pictured astronomical event ever, YouTube videos accounted for over 100 million views in just 3 days. Several dozens of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics gold medals got a piece of the meteorite welded inside – 10 of them were awarded on the first anniversary of the event Feb. 15, 2014. Many people earned from selling meteorite pieces to collectors around the world.

The first private cachets appeared as early as six months after the event (see above for the one applied in 2013 and another in 2015) but the only official recognition came with the creation of a special postmark used to celebrate its third anniversary in 2016 . The postmark has been applied in Chelyabinsk on the day of the event. Several enthusiastic astrophilately designers created a number of commemorative cards and covers, like the one below.

Need to mention that there are only two other known cases of commemorating meteorite events. The issue of pictorial cover and a stamp in 1957 to mark 10th anniversary of Sikhote-Alin meteorite, and the issue of stamp in 1958 for the 50th anniversary of Tunguska event.