Ensisheim meteorite
The oldest meteorite whose fall can be
dated precisely. On Nov. 7, 1492, near noon, a loud explosion preceded the
arrival of a 127-kg stone meteorite in a wheat field near the village of
Ensisheim in the province of Alsace, France, which at the time was part
of Germany. An old woodcut depicting the scene shows the fall watched by
two people emerging from a forest. In fact, a young boy was the only eyewitness
and he led the local populace to the field, where the meteorite lay in a
hole a meter deep. After it was retrieved, the townsfolk, believing the
object to be of supernatural origin, begin to chip off bits for souvenirs,
until stopped by the local magistrate. Many of these fragments ended up
in museums around the world. The remaining specimen, a rounded gray mass
weighing only 55 kg and nearly without any fusion
crust, can be seen today at Ensisheim resting in an elegant case in
the middle of the main hall of the Regency Palace built in 1535 by the emperor
Ferdinand of Austria.
Related categories
• FAMOUS
METEORITES
• METEORS
AND METEORITES
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