On February 15, 2013 a large meteor exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The shock wave caused a fair bit of damage and a number of injuries from flying glass and other debris.

Next year the winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. The athletes that win gold on February 15th are to receive medals which incorporate fragments of Chelyabinsk meteorite.

I love meteor-watching, though usually the skies are too cloudy to see anything. But I really would not want to experience this: Meteor breaks up over Chelyabinsk. And it could have been much worse.

But if some of the meteorite is incorporated into the gold medals next year, the winners of those will certainly have something extra-special to take home.

For the first time the debris plume of a bolide (really big meteor) was tracked by satellite. The faster part of it whizzed all around the northern hemisphere and was back over Chelyabinsk four days later.

Diagram of Chelyabinsk meteor explosion plume