3D Spheral Simulation of the Chelyabinsk Meteor’s Atmospheric Breakup

Fully 3D simulation of the Chelyabinsk meteor breakup in Earth’s atmosphere. The meteor is shown as a contour of the damage state (white intact, black fully-damaged). Shock-heated air nodes are displayed as points colored by their temperature. Initially fracture begins at the rear of the object. The crack then propagate forward eventually splitting the object into three coherent fragments. The fragments are disrupted shortly thereafter. Learn more: LLNL-VIDEO-842902