[meteorite-list] doubtful material related to Berlin fireball

From: Dieter Heinlein <dieter.heinlein_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:59 2005
Message-ID: <000701c52e12$34e46700$cf095150_at_DieterHeinlein>

Hello Svend,

thank you for pointing our attention onto this ebay auction.

Here are some facts. On February 1, 2005 a bright fireball has been recorded
by two cameras of the European Fireball Network (one near Berlin and one in
the Czech Republic). The bolide looked quite promising. So we measured and
calculated the event with high priority. We have the full reduction of the fireball
- and we are pretty sure that NO fragments have reached the ground, although the
initial mass was 200 kg. The material was rather fragile (most probably a carbo-
naceous chondrite) and didn't survive it's 90 km fiery passage thru the Earth's
atmosphere. I have written a detailed, four page, report about this fireball, but
so far it's available in German only.

It is quite obvious that the following auction

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44608&item=6164417570&rd=1

is a classical ebay fraud. The seller started his ebay carreer yesterday!, and he
tells pure nonsense: I'm absolutely sure, that there he has NO scientific analysis of
his material. Furthermore there were NO publications that 10 kg of material in 100
gram sized fragments may have reached the ground!
It seems to me that the seller just tries to make a fortune with junk. He also
claims, that he recently has found 34 fragment of 7 different meteorites here in
Germany. So we are anxious what he is going to offer us next.....

Kind regards from Germany

Dieter Heinlein
DLR Fireball Network

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Svend Buhl" <SvendBuhl_at_web.de>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 11:18 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] doubtful material related to Berlin fireball


> Hi list,
>
> some of the German members of this list might have noticed there has been a fireball sighting in the Berlin area in February.
The event lasted for about five seconds and has also been recorded by a camera of the European Fireball Network.
>
> There have been a couple of newspaper and TV-reports since then featuring scientists claiming that the entire 200 kg mass has
vaporized during descent according to their calculations. Other reports showed various self declared meteorite hunters combing
the terrain for cosmic booty, one of them equipped with a rather professional magnetometer, but none of them has claimed any
finds in public yet.
>
> Anyhow, since there has been no official confirmation regarding recovered material of this fall I wonder about the nature of
this material:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44608&item=6164417570&rd=1
>
> The seller claims to offer material of the - recent year 2005 Berlin fal l- which - has been tested by scientific
institutions - as he states in his description.
>
> This is only one of several doubtful meteorite offers currently online in German ebay. Another seller offers a large piece of
a meteorite from Rissani which is obviously not a meteorite, but rather a piece of magnetite-rich basalt. This auction has
already found a bidder.
>
> I know that none of the reputable German sellers known to this list are involved in the cases mentioned above. But since I
neglected German ebay for a couple of months, I wonder if I just stepped on single exceptions or if I missed a general trend. I
f so, I might consider to invest in a sophisticated meteorwrong collection ...
>
> cheers
> Svend
>
> www.niger-meteorite-recon.de
>
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Received on Mon 21 Mar 2005 07:32:41 AM PST