[meteorite-list] Huge news: 1st find from 4/6/2002 Bavarian Bolide (PART 1 of 2)
From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:12 2004 Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E275_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C237F7.31DA8710 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Congratulations Thomas! This discovery is a very big deal indeed, since it represents one of the very few times that a bright bolide has been observed by many people, recorded by multiple cameras, and from which at least one meteorite was eventually recovered. (The first find is the hard one -- others will now surely be discovered.) And if it turns out to be an H5 (read on!), you may have a very important find on your hands! I've driven all over this part of Bavaria, visiting beautiful Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Zugspitze, Fussen and of course the world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle built by "crazy Ludwig". This is an extraordinarily difficult region to search for meteorites -- rugged mountains, and dense forests -- so I cannot overemphasize the kudos deserved for making a recovery there. For the benefit of those who may have forgotten the details of this brilliant fall from earlier this year, here's an excerpt from Dieter Heinlein's post of April 10th: "A fireball of estimated magnitude -20 mag was observed by hundreds of people over southern Bavaria on April 6, 2002 at 20:20:18 UT, and spectacular sound effects were reported by many witnesses. The trajectory of this bolide was registered by several camera stations of the European Network of Fireball Photography. At least five camera stations located in Germany, one in Austria and one in the Czech Republic [caught] this event. Right now these images are reduced at the Ondrejov Observatory (Czech Republic) in order to obtain precise data for the atmospheric trajectory. A meteorite fall is probable, but NO real meteorites have been found so far." - - - - Pavel Spurny of the Czech Republic provided some even more exciting and detailed information about this bolide about a week later. Pay particular attention to the analysis of the heliocentric orbit determined: "A very bright fireball illuminated large territory of Western Austria and Southern Bavaria on Saturday evening, April 6 at 22:20:18 local time (UT+2h). The fireball was observed by many casual witnesses over the territory of almost whole Central Europe, but most observations were reported from Bavaria and Western Austria. Except of numerous visual observations, the fireball was recorded by several kinds of scientific instruments. The most important records were obtained by the systematic long-term observational photographic program - the European Fireball Network (EN). The records were taken at 5 German, one Czech and one Austrian station of the EN. Each of these stations is equipped with one all-sky camera, which is open whole night and whole sky is photographed on one image. The German and Austrian stations are equipped with mirror all-sky cameras and are operated by the German Aerospace Center DLR, Berlin. The Czech stations of the EN are equipped with very precise Zeiss Distagon fish-eye objectives and are operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Ondrejov. Most Czech stations had cloudy skies on April 6, however. The photographic records are most important for exact determination of the fireball atmospheric trajectory, including prediction of meteorite impact area and derivation of heliocentric orbit. In addition to these photographic data, the fireball was recorded by three radiometric systems placed in the Czech Republic at Ondrejov Observatory and Kunzak station, which gives us basic information about light curve and maximum brightness of the fireball and about exact time of the event. Furthermore the fireball was recorded by at least at two infrasound stations, one located at Freyung, Germany (see <http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=FR&lah=de312f6276c163fc53279a26d4ae4 56e&lat=1019084991&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eseismologie%2ebgr%2ede> http://www.seismologie.bgr.de) and second at Deelen, The Netherlands (see <http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=FR&lah=c707034ce6bf52b48dfc5dc7d1e19 97a&lat=1019084991&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eknmi%2enl%2f%7eevers%2finf rasound%2fevents%2f020406%2fbavaria%2dbolide%2ehtml> http://www.knmi.nl/~evers/infrasound/events/020406/bavaria-bolide.html) and also at several seismic stations from Austria, Southern Germany and Switzerland. "All data presented below are based only on above-mentioned photographic and radiometric data recorded within the EN observing program and are very close to final values. All records were measured, reduced and all computations were performed at the Ondrejov Observatory, the headquarters of the European Fireball Network." --CONTINUED in PART 2-- ------_=_NextPart_001_01C237F7.31DA8710 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.3315.2870" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>Congratulations Thomas!</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>This discovery is a very big deal indeed, since it represents one of the very</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>few times that a bright bolide has been observed by many people, recorded</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>by multiple cameras, and from which at least one meteorite was eventually</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>recovered. (The first find is the hard one -- others will now surely be</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>discovered.) And if it turns out to be an H5 (read on!), you may have a</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>very important find on your hands! I've driven all over this part of Bavaria,</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>visiting beautiful </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Zugspitze, Fussen and of</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>course the </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle built by "crazy Ludwig".</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>This is an extraordinarily </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>difficult region to search for meteorites -- rugged</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>mountains, and dense </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>forests -- so I cannot overemphasize the kudos</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>deserved for making a recovery there.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>For the benefit of those who may have forgotten the details of this brilliant</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>fall from earlier this year, here's an excerpt from Dieter Heinlein's post of</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>April 10th</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>:</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>"</SPAN></FONT><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>A fireball of estimated magnitude -20 mag was observed by hundreds of people</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>over southern Bavaria on April 6, 2002 at 20:20:18 UT, and spectacular sound </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>effects were reported by many witnesses.<SPAN class=046035817-30072002> </SPAN>The trajectory of this bolide was</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>registered by several camera stations of the<SPAN class=046035817-30072002> </SPAN>European Network of Fireball</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial>Photography. At least five camera stations located<SPAN class=046035817-30072002> </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial>in Germany, one in Austria</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2>and one in the Czech Republic <SPAN class=046035817-30072002>[c</SPAN><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>aught] </SPAN>this event. Right now these images</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2>are reduced at the Ondrejov Observatory (Czech </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>Republic) in order to obtain</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>precise data for the atmospheric trajectory. </FONT></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2>A meteorite fall is probable, but</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial>NO real meteorites have been found so far.<SPAN class=046035817-30072002>"</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>- - - -</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>Pavel Spurny of the Czech Republic provided some even more exciting</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>and detailed information </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>about this bolide about a week later. Pay particular</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002>attention to the analysis of the heliocentric orbit determined:</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=046035817-30072002></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT face=Arial size=2>"A very bright fireball illuminated large territory of Western Austria<BR>and Southern Bavaria on Saturday evening, April 6 at 22:20:18 local time<BR>(UT+2h). The fireball was observed by many casual witnesses over the territory<BR>of almost whole Central Europe, but most observations were reported from Bavaria<BR>and Western Austria. Except of numerous visual observations, the fireball was<BR>recorded by several kinds of scientific instruments. The most important records<BR>were obtained by the systematic long-term observational photographic program -<BR>the European Fireball Network (EN). The records were taken at 5 German, one<BR>Czech and one Austrian station of the EN. Each of these stations is equipped<BR>with one all-sky camera, which is open whole night and whole sky is photographed<BR>on one image. The German and Austrian stations are equipped with mirror all-sky<BR>cameras and are operated by the German Aerospace Center DLR, Berlin. The Czech<BR>stations of the EN are equipped with very precise Zeiss Distagon fish-eye<BR>objectives and are operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of<BR>Sciences of the Czech Republic, Ondrejov. Most Czech stations had cloudy skies<BR>on April 6, however. The photographic records are most important for exact<BR>determination of the fireball atmospheric trajectory, including prediction of<BR>meteorite impact area and derivation of heliocentric orbit. In addition to these<BR>photographic data, the fireball was recorded by three radiometric systems placed<BR>in the Czech Republic at Ondrejov Observatory and Kunzak station, which gives us<BR>basic information about light curve and maximum brightness of the<BR>fireball and about exact time of the event. Furthermore the fireball was<BR>recorded by at least at two infrasound stations, one located at Freyung, Germany<BR>(see </FONT><A href="http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=FR&lah=de312f6276c163fc53279a26d4ae456e&lat=1019084991&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eseismologie%2ebgr%2ede" target=_blank><FONT color=#000099 face=Arial size=2>http://www.seismologie.bgr.de</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>) and second at Deelen, The Netherlands (see<BR></FONT><A href="http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=FR&lah=c707034ce6bf52b48dfc5dc7d1e1997a&lat=1019084991&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eknmi%2enl%2f%7eevers%2finfrasound%2fevents%2f020406%2fbavaria%2dbolide%2ehtml" target=_blank><FONT color=#000099 face=Arial size=2>http://www.knmi.nl/~evers/infrasound/events/020406/bavaria-bolide.html</FONT></A><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>) and also<BR>at several seismic stations from Austria, Southern Germany and Switzerland.<BR><BR>"All data presented below are based only on above-mentioned photographic<BR>and radiometric data recorded within the EN observing program and are very close<BR>to final values. All records were measured, reduced and all computations were<BR>performed at the Ondrejov Observatory, the headquarters of the European Fireball<BR>Network.<SPAN class=110443718-30072002>" </SPAN><BR><SPAN class=110443718-30072002> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=110443718-30072002><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=110443718-30072002>--CONTINUED in PART 2--</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=110443718-30072002><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=046035817-30072002><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=110443718-30072002></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT> </DIV></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML> ------_=_NextPart_001_01C237F7.31DA8710-- Received on Tue 30 Jul 2002 02:30:35 PM PDT |
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