Ensisheim (meteorite)
The meteorite of Ensisheim is one of the oldest verified meteorite falls in Europe, from the material still available today.
On the morning of November 7, 1492 Little Body entered the Earth's atmosphere. This drew with loud thunder across the sky and drew a tracer behind him. The nichtverglühte part of the meteoroid ( chondritic stone meteorite of type LL6 ) finally opened in a wheat field at Ensisheim in Alsace.
The event was observed by numerous witnesses and caused a sensation. The impact crater itself was but only one meter deep. The incoming from the surrounding settlements observer scraped immediately after digging the first parts as a talisman from, to them it was forbidden. This initially left a weight of 127 kg ( 260 pounds at that time ). Sebastian Brant described out the meteor and its weight, which should have been greater than 127 kg of the premium, in his pamphlet " The thunder stone from Ensisheim ":
Zalt Since you fierzehenhundert jar Uff is sant Florentzen tag was Neuntzig VND Zwey vmb mittentag Geschach grawsam a thunderous impact Dreyg hundredweight blackest Fyel images this stone Hye jnn the field before Ensißheim
Albrecht Dürer stayed on November 7, 1492 in Basel, 40 km away, and it is unlikely that he has seen in daylight around noon the meteorite fall from a distance. Some years later, in 1494 or 1497, Dürer painted an exploding celestial body on the back of his painting " Penitent Saint Jerome ". Also presented in his engraving " Melencolia I" 1514 Dürer represents a meteorite
The since 1486 Roman- German King Maximilian I, at this time just with his entourage on the way to France to each official recognition from both the wife at this time 13 - year-old Anne de Bretagne retrieve from the French king Charles VIII took advantage of the presented him Fund to hold "court" over the Thunderstone and to use the possible omen for his policies. He had the meteorite lay in chains and hung in the parish church.
Over time, more pieces of the meteorite were repulsed again and again, now preserved in museums and other collections, such as the Natural History Museum in Paris. The actual main piece of 55.75 kg can be seen in the museum Palais de la Regency ( Regent Palace) in Ensisheim.