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Black on the outside, gray on the inside: This is what the meteorite in Styria probably looks like - here is an earlier find
Photo: L. Ferrière / NHM Vienna
A stone made headlines a few days ago.
Still, he had a pretty impressive fire tail and came from space.
There are lamer reasons to get media attention.
According to a press release from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the meteorite, which still weighed around 120 kilograms at that time, crossed the night sky over Styria at around 90 kilometers on Friday at 2.10 a.m.
(
A little meteorite nerd context is allowed here: Strictly speaking, the chunk was still an asteroid in flight. "Meteorite" is only called what arrives on earth.
)
The extraterrestrial visitor was traveling south at about 18 kilometers per second and was visible for about five and a half seconds.
Press work for a stone
The message comes from the geologist Dr.
Ludovic Ferrière, employee of the Natural History Museum in Vienna and curator of the meteorite exhibition there.
Why does a scientist do press work for a meteorite?
“I hope that reports in the press will find many more meteorites.
Two years ago I first published a press release about a meteorite - and seven months after the crash it was found in one piece by a local resident.
Without the media coverage, this man would never have considered that this stone could be a meteorite.«
At the time, Ferrière's appeal was not only responsible for the discovery of the rock.
"Some also contact me because they recognized a meteorite in that strange rock they picked up a few years ago or a chunk that's gathering dust in a box in the attic."
Meteorite hunter in the corn field
The media coverage helped this time too.
In the first 24 hours, dozens of space rock hunters gathered to look for the stone.
The area where the meteorite most likely fell is once five kilometers.
Ferrière himself was there too.
First he looked in gardens, on streets and paths.
But there is also a large forest area and corn fields, which of course cannot be searched at the moment.
At first, the farmers who owned the fields were very helpful, says Ferrière.
Of course, when they realized that hundreds of meteorite fortune-tellers could storm their fields in the next few days and weeks, "their enthusiasm was limited."
A stone's throw from the asteroid belt
Of course, he would always ask permission when entering private property, says Ferrière.
But he can't take responsibility if others don't.
Especially since – and here Ferrière gets a little strict with his voluntary search parties – most of them wouldn't know exactly what they're looking for anyway.
"There's a bunch of weird looking rocks that have nothing to do with meteorites."
Then he gives a few tips on how to distinguish a genuine meteorite from terrestrial rock.
You have to look for chunks “that are completely or partially covered by a black crust”.
When the stone is broken, you can see the inside.
In this case, according to measurements, it is a stone meteorite: "It is light gray, possibly with small metallic inclusions."
Stone meteorites are among the most common space stones.
So is the current chunk just an every stone among the meteorites?
Not even close.
Because here, too, the media ensured that the stone became a star: the fall of the fireball was recorded by 17 cameras.
According to Ferrière, this makes it possible to calculate very precisely where the chunk comes from: "From the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter." Knowing its origin makes the average chunk a rarity: According to Ferrière, there are only 35 meteorites in the world that are certain , where they come from.
In the chunk currently being sought, "there are traces of the formation of the solar system."
A number of projects are investigating questions on this topic.
However, the information they are gathering for this currently still comes from observations from observatories and calculations.
"One sample from there would have the whole story."
Please no more slag!
In order to get to the bottom of this secret, the meteorite professional is willing to take on a lot.
Because if you ask, you get emails.
And Ferrière has had a few of those in his mailbox since Friday.
And: By no means every stone that looks funny is also a meteorite.
When Ferrière speaks of "slag" one thinks one recognizes a somewhat annoyed undertone in the voice of the cheerful all-stone explorer.
Most of the stones that would be found are slag.
And when it comes to slag, his voice finally takes on a severe timbre: "You shouldn't," says Ferrière, "take stones with blisters with you.
That's slag.” No meteorite has bubbles.
Incidentally, most of these non-meteorites would be found on Saturdays – and now scientist Ferrière has to laugh for a moment.
"When people were drinking with friends the night before." That's pretty funny, but also a bit exhausting.
Often people would not believe him that their stone was worthless.
Some are firmly convinced that they are rich because they found a meteorite.
"That's not the case."
"Oh yes," Ferrierè writes later, "if you still have space, I would be happy if you wrote that the Natural History Museum in Vienna has the world's largest meteorite exhibition." Of course.
Happy World Asteroid Day!
bma