Exploding Fireball: Find the meteorite fragments

The fireball exploded on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. between the cities of Limbach and Bachlerboden, both in the municipality of Haag. According to NHM Vienna, one or two of the fragments are the size of a fist, and others may be smaller. The museum is now calling on people to help find the fragments and report any discoveries.

The glow of the falling meteorite in the atmosphere was recorded by cameras from the European Fireball network. “From the data set that these cameras record, you can calculate the area where this fireball was likely to fall to Earth,” Andrea Patzer, curator of the meteor collection at NHM, told noe.ORF.at.

Finds are very rare

The scientist was already searching for parts of extraterrestrial matter on Saturday, but to no avail, she explained, pointing to the difficult terrain where plants, meadows, and cultivated fields abound.

In Austria, there have not been many officially confirmed cases or discoveries of meteorites since records began. Patzer talks about only five discoveries that have been officially classified. “So every additional one is special.”

Weak and dark magnets

According to scientists, in order to identify a stone as a meteorite, the following criteria must be taken into account: the find must be relatively heavy for its size, have a smooth and matte surface, not shiny, and be black or rusty brown in color. The surface is brown if the meteorite remains on Earth for a long time.

The body is weakly magnetic, compact, solid, and non-porous. If the found object is broken, cracked, or cut at the corner, metal inclusions or small circular structures can be identified. The interior of a meteorite is always brighter.

First take pictures, then report

Before you supposedly capture a meteorite, you should take pictures of it with your cell phone from different directions, photograph the location where it was found and record its GPS coordinates with your cell phone. If possible, you should store the item in aluminum foil or a plastic bag.

About 100 tons of extraterrestrial material falls to Earth every day – mainly in the form of dust. Upon entering the Earth's atmosphere, the surface of these objects is greatly heated and the air molecules surrounding them are ionized.

This results in the formation of a plasma tail at altitudes between 80 and 120 km, which is seen as a shooting star. Fireballs are caused by larger objects; These short-lived luminous phenomena are called meteors. With more than 10,300 objects, the Natural History Museum Vienna houses one of the largest meteorite collections in the world.