Second anniversary of Chelyabinsk meteorite strike

Two years ago, the Earth caught a glimpse of disaster in the form of a 12,000-tonne meteorite that exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk

It happened at 9:20am local time. A fireball appeared from out of the crystal clear blue sky over the southern Ural region in Russia. Rapidly increasing in brightness, it blazed brighter than the Sun.

The lightshow turned dangerous when the fireball abruptly exploded, injuring more than 1200 people. Some were burnt by the heat but most were cut as the shock wave from the explosion violently smashed windows. The city sustained 1 billion roubles (10m) worth of damage.