Lucky 13! Little Piney is an ordinary (L6) chondrite that fell in Missouri the afternoon of February 13, 1839.  The meteorite’s entry was heard by local witnesses as it exploded between 3 and 4 PM, with 3 subsequent smaller explosions as it broke into pieces. The witnesses went in search of the stones they’d seen…

New Year’s Day Meteorite! Hessle is an ordinary (H5) chondrite that fell south of Uppsala, Sweden January 1, 1869, shortly after noon.  This was the first meteorite fall ever witnessed in Sweden, and was seen by a number of people as they were leaving church. It was an overcast day in Hessle, so the bright…

Sena is an ordinary (H4) chondrite that fell November 17, 1773, near Sarinena, Spain. The meteorite was later analyzed by the French chemist J. L. Proust, who may have been the first to recommend cold deserts, such as polar regions, for meteorite recovery.  He determined this in 1805, based on the iron-nickel inclusions in Sena…

Zagami is a martian meteorite that fell near Katsina, Nigeria the afternoon of October 3, 1962. The meteorite’s impact startled a local farmer, as the stone embedded itself in his cornfield, a short 10 feet from where he was standing! With 18 kg recovered, Zagami is the largest martian meteorite on record. Zagami is classified…

Mezö-Madaras is an L3.7 ordinary chondrite that fell in Harghita, Romania on September 4th, 1852. Over 22 kg (50 lbs) of this meteorite fell in a shower of stones. Mezö-Madaras is a very interesting meteorite because it is unequilibrated, meaning that its asteroid parent-body underwent very little change after forming 4.56 billion years ago. This…