Aubrite Meteor Fragments Recovered After Explosion Over Berlin
On January 21st, 2024, a spectacular event unfolded in the skies over Berlin as a meter-sized asteroid, named 2024 BX1, entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded. The explosion, which occurred at 12:33 am UTC, was witnessed by many and even captured on film. Fortunately, the explosion caused no damage, but it did leave behind a trail of meteor fragments that have since been recovered by a team of dedicated scientists.
The team, consisting of researchers from the Freie Universität Berlin, the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Technische Universität Berlin, and the SETI Institute, embarked on a mission to locate and identify these rare fragments. Led by Dr. Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer from the SETI Institute, and Dr. Lutz Hecht from the MfN, the team scoured the fields just south of the village of Ribbeck, approximately 50 km west of Berlin.
Locating the fragments proved to be a challenge due to their unique appearance. Aubrites, as they are known, resemble ordinary rocks from a distance but possess distinct characteristics upon closer inspection. Unlike other meteor types that develop a black glass crust from the intense heat of atmospheric entry, aubrites have a mostly translucent glass crust. Christopher Hamann, a researcher from the Museum für Naturkunde, explained their distinct features in a press release from the SETI Institute: “Aubrites do not look like what people generally imagine meteorites to look like. Aubrites look more like a gray granite and consist mainly of the magnesium silicates enstatite and forsterite. It contains hardly any iron and the glassy crust, which is usually a good way to recognize meteorites, looks completely different than that of most other meteorites. Aubrites are therefore difficult to detect in the field.”
The journey to recover these fragments began long before the explosion occurred. Hungarian astronomer Dr. Krisztián Sárneczky first spotted the asteroid using a telescope at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest. From there, NASA’s Scout mission and the ESA’s Meerkat Asteroid Guard impact hazard assessment systems tracked its trajectory and predicted its entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Davide Farnocchia of JPL/Caltech provided regular updates on its path.
Dr. Jenniskens, who has led several previous recovery missions, including impacts in France, Botswana, and Sudan, expressed the challenges faced in locating the fragments: “Even with superb directions by meteor astronomers Drs. Pavel Spurný, Jirí Borovicka, and Lukáš Shrbený of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who calculated how the strong winds blew the meteorites and predicted that these could be rare enstatite-rich meteorites based on the light emitted by the fireball, our search team initially could not easily spot them on the ground. We only spotted the meteorites after a Polish team of meteorite hunters had identified the first find and could show us what to look for. After that, our first finds were made quickly by Freie Universität students Dominik Dieter and Cara Weihe.”
Once the fragments were recovered, they were sent to the Museum für Naturkunde for analysis. Dr. Ansgar Greshake, the scientific head of the MfN’s meteorite collection, led the examination using an electron beam microprobe to study their mineralogy and chemical composition. The results confirmed that the fragments are consistent with an achondrite meteor of the aubrite type. These findings were submitted to the International Nomenclature Commission of the Meteoritical Society for verification.
Dr. Greshake emphasized the significance of their discovery, stating, “Based on this evidence, we were able to make a rough classification relatively quickly. This underlines the immense importance of collections for research. So far, there is only material from eleven other observed falls of this type in meteorite collections worldwide.”
The recovery and analysis of these aubrite meteor fragments provide valuable insights into the composition and nature of these rare celestial objects. As scientists continue to unravel the mysteries of our universe, each new discovery brings us closer to understanding the wonders that lie beyond our planet’s atmosphere.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.