Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

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Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby David Entwistle » Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:14 am

After reports of a bright meteor there are reports of a meteorite recovered from northern Iran.


The area is around Zanjan (36.68 N 48.49 E).

ISNA report that the fall was at 20:15 local time (15:45 UTC) on Thursday 30th July, 2015.
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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby David Entwistle » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:57 am

There is a report about the fall of the Iranian meteorite in the latest issue of "Nojum" magazine, a well known amateur astronomy magazine in Iran. The image of the report (below) should load after a while. Many thanks to Hajar for that information.

Image

I don't read Persian, but it looks as though the location is given as Famenin, Hamedan, Iran, (35.11 N 48.97 E) some 180 km from Zanjan. Is a strewn field with a 180 km major axis likely?

I'm also confused by the date provided, but that may be due to the use of a different calendar in Iran. There's a calendar converter here, I see the magazine uses the Jalali Calendar, so I'm guessing the fall date is given as 6th Mardad 1394 (28th July 2015), but would welcome confirmation...
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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby David Entwistle » Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:07 pm

Hamed Pourkhorsandi, currently researching Iranian meteorites at CEREGE, has provided some very welcome clarification on the recent events.

On 27th of June 2015 around 8 A.M. a meteorite fell on a house roof in Famenin town in Hamedan Province of Iran. The related report/news is the
one that appeared in Nojum magazine...

Beside this fall, another meteorite fell in the evening of 30th of July in northern Iran. Those videos are about this event...


So, two Iranian falls in just over a month. Amazing.

Many thanks to Hamed for the clarification. I look forward to reading further information as the meteorites are analyzed and named.
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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby Barwellian » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:58 pm

Thanks for the update...unusually close for two falls...i wonder how accurate the date of the later fall is...wonder if it is new or just found later...will be good to know if they are different classifications or not?

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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby Barwellian » Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:24 pm

Further info here...one contact I have seems to think that the report is made up...but the penetration hole in the roof here looks right to me...

http://www.sefidak.com/news-day/meteorite-hamadan-iran

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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby David Entwistle » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:17 am

I see that the earlier of the two Iranian falls is now listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin. The meteorite is named Famenin

    35°7.12’N, 48°58.50’E
    Hamadan, Iran
    Confirmed fall: 2015 June 27
    Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H/L3)

Around 08:30 am local time (GMT+3.5) on 27 June 2015, Reza Salimi, living in Famenin town of Hamedan Province, Iran, heard the sound of an impacting object onto the roof of his house. He discovered that part of the roof was damaged and fragments of a stone were spread on the roof. He found some other fragments in his yard. News of the meteorite fall propagated quickly via the local media. With the help of a local journalist, Hamed Pourkhorsandi (CEREGE) received a total of 25 g of fragments two weeks after the fall.
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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby brasky12 » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:15 pm

Creston (USA) has also been verified David -

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=62546
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Re: Suspected Meteorite Recovered from Northern Iran

Postby David Entwistle » Sun Jan 24, 2016 6:43 pm

I see that the second of the 2015 Iranian meteorites has now been classified. The second meteorite is called Moshampa

    36° 57' 57"N, 47° 41' 28"E
    Zanjan, Iran
    Confirmed fall: 2015
    Classification: Ordinary chondrite (LL5)

On Thursday, 2015 July 30, between 20:10 and 20:15 local time (+03:30 GMT), a very bright fireball appeared in the evening sky of N and NW Iran. Thousands of observational reports in the north to north-west of the country spread immediately in the local and international media. Very loud sonic booms were heard in Zanjan province. Ghadir Mohammadi, a farmer from Moshampa village was working in a field near the Moshampa village, close to the Qezel Ozan river when heard four loud booms (the last one the being much louder) and saw a zig-zag shaped cloud in the sky. After about two ', he heard the sound of an object falling into the wet soil about 5-10 m away from him. Worried it might be unexploded military ordnance, he went back to the village. He then heard about the fireball reports and realized that the army and police were looking for the object. The day after, he went back to the fall place and found a stone buried about 20 cm deep in a hole and informed the media about his finding. Hamed Pourkhorsandi received two pieces of the meteorite at CEREGE in 2015 October 7. A smaller stone had allegedly been recovered, but this information could not be verified during visit to the site in November 2015.


Two falls within five weeks, in the same country, must be something of a record.
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