On February 28th at 22:24:46 UT a bright bolide enlightened the night sky over the Central Europe. Despite the late hour bunch of people were watching Olympics ice hockey finals on TV and eye witnessed astonishing celestial spectacle. The glare of the bolide illuminated streets and interior of apartments, at some places in Eastern Slovakia cannon-like burst or series of low frequency blasts were heard. Due to the bad weather, cloudy skies and scatter showers the
Central European Fireball Network (operated by
Dr. Pavel Spurny of the
Czech Academy of Sciences) did not take direct optical records of the bolide and
Slovak Video Network (operated by
Dr. Juraj Toth of
Comenius University in Bratislava) did not operate that night so that at first moment it seemed that there are no scientific records of this event. Fortunately fast photoelectric sensors on 7 automated fireball stations in the Czech Republic (6) and Austria (1) detected the illumination of the sky caused by the bolide which enabled to determine exact time and duration of the bolide and estimate its brightness. The bolide reached the maximum brightness at least -18 magnitude in one huge flare. In the morning few photographers took a picture of a possible scatter dust trail. Later on several surveillance camera data were published showing the moment when the night became a day for a second but only two videos from Hungary (Orkeny village,
Fazzi Daniella and
Vass Gabor; Telki village, contact persons
Szarneczky Krisztian,
Kiss Laszlo) actually captured the fireball itself. Thanks to calibration of videos by several members of the
Hungarian Astronomical Association (
MCSE - www.mcse.hu) contributed (namely
Igaz Antal) and trajectory analysis done by
Dr. Jiri Borovicka of the
Czech Academy of Sciences gave the hope that significant number of meteorite fragments reached the surface. He also calculated the impact area near town
Kosice in Eastern Slovakia. The data from
Local Seismic Network Eastern Slovakia (project led by
Prof. Moczo of
Comenius University) confirmed the fall location as well. The expedition consisting of scientists and graduate students of the
Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (under the leadership of
Jan Svoren),
Comenius University in Bratislava (under the leadership of
Juraj Toth),
Czech Academy of Sciences (under the leadership of
Pavel Spurny) started to sweep meadows and forests at the calculated area. The first meteorite was discovered by
Juraj Tóth on March 20th. Until the March 28th, 64 meteorite fragments were found. The heaviest fragment weights 2.19 kg, the smallest pieces were only about 0.5 gram. The total mass recovered is equal to 3.917kg. Preliminary analysis implies that the recovered meteorite is classified as an
ordinary H5 chondrite (
Dr. J. Haloda,
Czech Geological Survey). The ongoing data analysis will reveal also other parameters of this bolide as the meteorite atmospheric velocity, pre-atmospheric mass and initial orbit in the Solar System. According to Slovak laws, meteorites belong to the state. Collecting meteorites is allowed only to state or academic institutions from Slovak Republic. Credit:
Juraj Toth, Jan Svoren, Pavel Spurny, Jiri Borovicka, Igaz Antal and Peter Veres. youtube videos of fireball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvJkhiUUAT8
(Orkeny village, Hungary, Fazzi Daniella and Vass Gabor)
http://hirek.csillagaszat.hu/meteoroidok,_meteorok/20100301-tuzgomb-magyarorszag-felett.html
(Dusan Vaverka, Brno city, Czech Republic)
http://www.rtlklub.hu/video/84397
(Telki village, Meszleny Tamas, Szarnecky Kristian, Kiss Laslo), caption from Hungarian RTL TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6HFlC0U4Lo
(surveillance camera captured flare on a parking lot in Presov town, Slovakia)
Photos of Kosice Meteorites: