We asked Yury Nefedyev about the mysterious event of January 7th.

NASA recently concluded that the bright blue flash over the eastern part of Tatarstan was caused by a small meteor with a velocity of 21 km/sec. It was registered at 00:24.

This is what Professor Nefedyev had to say in light of new facts, “According to this NASA report, there was an atmospheric explosion above Naberezhnye Chelny. The calculated impact energy was about 0.1 kilotons TNT. For example, the Chelyabinsk meteorite was about 440 kt. The event in question could be either technogenic or natural. If, supposedly, a bolide exploded, then what was its composition? They very rarely explode in the atmosphere; bolides usually burn and emit a visible glowing tail. There was nothing like that here, and the flash was only 3 seconds long and very bright which is also uncharacteristic for a small meteorite. We can hypothesize that the body consisted of an ice-like matter which exploded from heating – but where did the big flash which lit the whole sky come from? I also want to note that there was no mention of atmospheric explosions from any Russian agencies at the time of the event.”

NASA helped shed light on the matter, but, on the other hand, produced new riddles for scientists to mull over, said Dr. Nefedyev. He added that the fact of the explosion itself is still the biggest mystery about the Chelyabinsk meteor.