March’s Meteorite of the Month is Alais, a carbonaceous chondrite that fell in southern France in 1806. Alais was the first recognized carbonaceous chondrite, and occurred just 3 years after the historic fall at L’Aigle convinced the scientific community that meteorites could, indeed, fall to Earth. On the late afternoon of March 15, 1806, residents […]
Category: Meteorites
Lissa
Note: While we usually feature a meteorite that's fallen in the current month, our Curator, Dr. Laurence Garvie, liked this photo so much that we decided to share it now, rather than waiting. Lissa is an ordinary (L6) chondrite that fell at 3:30PM on September 3, 1808, in what is now the Czech Republic, near […]
Dhajala
Dhajala is an ordinary chondrite (H3.8) that fell in Sayla Taluka, India. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB55), at roughly 8:40pm on January 28, 1976, a very bright fireball was observed near Dhajala. The fireball was significantly brighter than the full moon that night, and made a hissing sound. Detonations were also heard, and the […]
Ivuna
Ivuna is a carbonaceous chondrite (CI1)that fell in Mbeya, Tanzania the evening of December 16, 1938. While multiple stones may have fallen, only one 705 g piece was ever recovered. Ivuna is the type specimen for the CI chondrite group of meteorites, which are extremely rare; only 9 are known to exist on Earth. CI […]
Bath Furnace
November’s Meteorite of the Month is Bath Furnace, an ordinary (L6) chondrite meteorite that fell the evening of November 15th, 1902, in Bath County, Kentucky. According to Henry A. Ward (1903), the fireball was readily visible as far south as Georgia and Louisiana, and as far north as Ohio, and was witnessed by two different […]