New Fall Recovered in Czech Republic

[David Entwistle]

Czech Radio are reporting the recovery of a meteorite. As Pavel Spurný gets a mention I have little doubt that this is accurate.

Google translation:

Astronomers have found part of a meteorite that fell on the Czech territory less than two weeks. About one centimeter large chunk of searchers found Pelhřimova. Czech Radio's Paul confirmed Spurný of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences.

More here, here, here and here.

Date of fall 9th December 2014. The meteor was recorded at 16:16:45 local(?) time and triangulation of the images too the searchers to within a few 100m of the recovery location.

Location somewhere around here (49.817492 N 15.472962 E).

Mass 5.93 grams.
Ordinary chondrite, type L

Finder Tomáš Holenda as part of a team from Jihlavskou astronomickou společností. Congratulations to all involved.

[David Entwistle]

Now officially classified as Žd'ár nad Sázavou.

Žd’ár nad Sázavou
49°31.3’ N, 16°2.0’ E
Vysocina, Czech Republic
Confirmed fall: 9 Dec 2014
Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L3)

History: A -15 absolute magnitude bolide was observed by thousands of eyewitnesses over large part of central Europe and recorded photographically by 10 automated all-sky fireball observatories at 7 Czech stations of the European Fireball Network on Dec 9, 2014, at 16:16:45-54 UT. Very precise data on atmospheric trajectory, heliocentric orbit and fragmentation history were quickly determined. Based on this analysis it was evident that this event terminated with a multiple meteorite fall. The impact area for possible range of meteorite masses was thus modeled. Two small fresh meteorites which according to the prediction originated in the brightest flare at 36.4 km altitude (5.6 and 39.3 g) were found shortly after the bolide observations (20 Dec 2014 and 12 Jan 2015) during dedicated search. Both were recovered exactly in the predicted location for given mass (both less than 100 m apart the highest probability location).