A geologist has been given a one-year suspended sentence for stealing a chunk of a famous meteorite from the museum where he worked.
The Chelyabinsk meteor hit Russia’s south-central Chelyabinsk Oblast region in February 2013 and became a viral hit on social media.
One YouTube clip of the extraterrestrial rock falling to Earth like Superman arriving from planet Krypton has been seen by 21 million people.
The glowing superbolid, an extremely bright meteor, made headlines around the world at the time, but a 2.5-kilogramme (5.5-lb) chunk went missing from the State Museum of the South Ural History last year.
The museum contacted the Federal Security Service (FSB) to help them retrieve the space rock and soon found it in the possession of scientist Sergey Kolisnichenko.
The renowned geologist, who has authored books on meteors, worked with the museum to research the Chelyabinsk fragments.
The local authorities believe that Kolisnichenko nabbed the rock during a research visit and was able to smuggle it out undetected.
The fragment, which was estimated to be worth 1.5 million RUB (17,600 GBP) has since been returned to the museum.
Despite receiving a one-year suspended sentence, Kolisnichenko denied any wrongdoing and said that he was given the rock by the museum to research it.
He claimed that it was handed to him “without any papers” and that he “stored it, studied it and was about to return it” with his final conclusions “by the end of the year”.
He said that he was blamed for its theft following “internal problems among museum staff”.
The museum, however, have denied this.
Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
