Meteorite trail

On February 15, residents of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk witnessed what scientists say was the most powerful asteroid to hit the Earth in the last 100 years. According to scientists at NASA, the amount of energy released was about 30 times the amount generated by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

In this image, a meteorite trail is seen above a residential apartment block in Chelyabinsk. A heavy meteor shower rained down on central Russia, sowing panic as the hurtling space debris smashed windows and injured dozens of stunned locals, officials said. According to a new NASA estimate, the meteor had likely been crossing the Earth's orbit for thousands of years.