Abstract
The meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk, Russia, naturally made many people think it could be a smaller companion of the Asteroid 2012 DA14, which passed close to Earth on that same day. Some asteroid specialists discarded this hypothesis for two main reasons: The meteorite was too far away from the asteroid, because the collision happened sixteen hours before the asteroid passed close to Earth. Moreover, it was not traveling, similarly to asteroid DA14, from south to north. However the possibility of the meteorite being a companion of the Asteroid 2012 DA14 cannot be completely discarded. The Asteroid 2012 DA14, with a diameter of 45 meters, is very small. It can be considered an asteroids fragment, which is usually accompanied by other smaller fragments, scattered in space, practically in the same orbit and possibly being separated from each other by long distances. Assuming that 2012 DA14 is not an isolated asteroid, but the biggest remaining fragment from a previous impact, we developed a model to study the dynamics of an asteroid fragment, similar to DA14, and its companions, the smaller fragments. This dynamically interesting encounter with planet Earth is addressed and the orbital changes that could explain the Chelyabinsk event are discussed. As a result we find that, there could be a collision of a meteorite before, during, or after the Asteroid 2012 DA14 passing by, the same way that happens with meteorite showers, which can last several days. Therefore, it would be very interesting to look for asteroid fragments also, close to the larger fragments, more easily found.
