What caused the Chelyabinsk explosion over Russia in 2013?

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Illustration showing a massive asteroid above a city map with a dinosaur silhouette for scale, highlighting the asteroid's size compared to major urban areas. — Asteroid This rock would take out more than just a *T. rex*.

The 2013 explosion over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia was caused by a meteorite approximately 17 meters (56 feet) wide that broke up in Earth's atmosphere.1

The event was not a nuclear incident, which is sometimes confused with the 1957 Kyshtym disaster that occurred in the same region. In the 2013 event, the atmospheric breakup of the meteorite generated a powerful shock wave that shattered windows, resulting in injuries to more than 1,500 people, primarily from flying glass.21