Aubrite meteorite from asteroid 2024 BX1, photographed at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin by Laura Kranich, a Freie Universität MSc student and member of the Arbeitskreis Meteore, who got involved in the search and found this meteorite near the town of Ribbeck, Germany.” Jenniskens traveled from San Francisco to Berlin to browse the fields just south of the village of Ribbeck with Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) researcher Dr. Lutz Hecht, directing a group of trainees and staff from the MfN, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Deutches zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt, and the Technische Universität Berlin in the days following the fall.The Challenge of Detection” Even with exceptional instructions by meteor astronomers Drs. Pavel Spurný, Jiří Borovička, and Lukáš Shrbený of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who calculated how the strong winds blew the meteorites, and anticipated that these might be rare enstatite-rich meteorites based on the light given off by the fireball, our search group at first could not easily identify them on the ground,” stated Jenniskens.Unlike other meteorites which have a thin crust of black glass from atmospheric heat, these meteorites have a primarily clear glass crust.” We only identified the meteorites after a Polish team of meteorite hunters had actually determined the first find and might reveal us what to look for,” said Jenniskens.
Aubrite meteorite from asteroid 2024 BX1, photographed at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin by Laura Kranich, a Freie Universität MSc trainee and member of the Arbeitskreis Meteore, who took part in the search and discovered this meteorite near the town of Ribbeck, Germany. Credit: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin by Laura Kranic Jenniskens partners at the Museum für Naturkunde formally revealed that the very first evaluations of one of these pieces with an electron beam microprobe prove the typical mineralogy and chemical structure of an achondrite of the aubrite type.The official classification now aligns with what numerous thought from merely taking a look at the images of the weird meteorites that fell near Berlin on January 21, 2024. They come from an unusual group called “aubrites.”” They were devilishly hard to find because, from a distance, they appear like other rocks in the world,” stated SETI Institute meteor astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens. “Close up, not a lot.” Jenniskens traveled from San Francisco to Berlin to browse the fields just south of the town of Ribbeck with Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) researcher Dr. Lutz Hecht, directing a group of trainees and staff from the MfN, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Deutches zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt, and the Technische Universität Berlin in the days following the fall.The Challenge of Detection” Even with superb directions by meteor astronomers Drs. Pavel Spurný, Jiří Borovička, and Lukáš Shrbený of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who calculated how the strong winds blew the meteorites, and forecasted that these could be uncommon enstatite-rich meteorites based upon the light discharged by the fireball, our search team at first could not quickly find them on the ground,” stated Jenniskens.Unlike other meteorites which have a thin crust of black glass from atmospheric heat, these meteorites have a mostly translucent glass crust.” We just found the meteorites after a Polish group of meteorite hunters had actually identified the very first find and might show us what to look for,” said Jenniskens. “After that, our very first finds were made rapidly by Freie Universität students Dominik Dieter and Cara Weihe.” Importance of Meteorite CollectionsThe meteorites are fragments of the little asteroid 2024 BX1, first identified with a telescope at Konkoly Observatory in Hungary by astronomer Dr. Krisztián Sárneczky, tracked and after that forecasted to impact Earths atmosphere by NASAs Scout and ESAs Meerkat Asteroid Guard impact hazard evaluation systems, with Davide Farnocchia of JPL/Caltech offering frequent trajectory updates, and finally triggering a bright fireball that was seen and shot. This was Jenniskens fourth guided recovery of such a little asteroid impact, following a 2008 impact in Sudan, a 2018 impact in Botswana, and a 2023 effect in France.Today, Jenniskens collaborators at the Museum für Naturkunde officially revealed that the very first evaluations of one of these pieces with an electron beam microprobe prove the common mineralogy and chemical structure of an achondrite of the aubrite type. This result was submitted to the International Nomenclature Commission of the Meteoritical Society on February 2, 2024, for assessment and confirmation.The name of the meteorite comes from the village of Aubrés in France, where a comparable meteorite fell on September 14, 1836. The museum has a piece of that in the collection.” Based on this evidence, we were able to make a rough classification fairly quickly,” stated Dr. Ansgar Greshake, clinical head of the museums meteorite collection. “This underlines the tremendous value of collections for research. Far, there is only product from eleven other observed falls of this type in meteorite collections worldwide.”” Aubrites do not look like what individuals generally envision meteorites to appear like. Aubrites look more like a gray granite and consist mainly of the magnesium silicates enstatite and forsterite,” said Christopher Hamann from the Museum für Naturkunde, who was associated with the preliminary category and participated in the search. “It consists of barely any iron and the glassy crust, which is usually a good way to acknowledge meteorites, looks completely various than that of most other meteorites. Aubrites are therefore difficult to spot in the field.”
