Přibram meteorite

The fall of the meteorite Pribram occurred on April 7, 1959 at 20:30:21 CET near the town of Pribram in the former Czechoslovakia.

From the original four meteorite fragments were recovered with a total mass of about 5.5 kilograms. Pribram as Ordinary chondrite (type H5 ) was classified, a group of stone meteorites. He is considered the first meteorite in the world that could be found due to simultaneous photographic records.

Meteorite fall and recording

The tracer of the meteor in the atmosphere began at an altitude of around 98 kilometers. In the lower part of the trajectory (in about 44-13 km altitude) broke away from the cars a number of fragments (a total of about 17 pieces).

The Czechoslovak Observatory Ondřejov get records of the case with several, widely apart located cameras. With this stereo recording ( by triangulation ) the trajectory of Pribram could be quite accurately reconstructed. Using the same technique, the European Fireball Network seeks, inter alia, in Germany since the seventies the night sky for bright meteors from (so-called fireballs ).

Analysis of the heliocentric orbit

From the data records of the orbit of the meteoroid Pribram (European Network -Name: EN070459 ) could be calculated back to the sun. It was not until 43 years later it turns out that this is almost exactly with the path of the meteoroids Neuschwanstein ( EN060402 ) coincided whose case was recorded on April 6, 2002 in Bavaria. It is therefore obvious that both meteorites could come from the same parent body. However, Neuschwanstein is a so-called enstatite chondrite (type EL6 ), an extremely rare group of stony meteorites. Pribram the ordinary chondrites (type H5 ) is to be allocated. A comparison of the cosmogenic isotopes of the two stones results for Neuschwanstein an age of 48 million years for Pribram, however, 12 million years. A common parent body would have to be heterogeneous in nature. It could then possibly a only held together by gravity ' rubble pile "(English Rubble pile ) act, which was shattered by a collision with another celestial body.

Discoveries and naming

After the fall of four fragments were recovered. Each received the names of the villages, near which they were found: Luhy ( 4250 grams), Velka ( 772 grams), Hojšín (428 grams) and Dražkov (105 grams). However, they decided to give the meteorite fall called " Pribram ", named after the calculated fall site of the hypothetical main mass of the meteorite.