-
- The following message was posted to the DMS Mr. Langbroek
on Friday, 6 August.
-
- Most postings on this list are in Dutch. I have translated
this posting into English for the benefit of those on the meteorite mailing
list who are not fluent in Dutch.
-
- My own impression of this "meteor something"
is that it is more likely to be a hunk of satellite or other space junk
than a traditional pre-space age meteorite.
-
- _________________
-
- Just returned from offices of the Aviation Police at
Schiphol East [Amsterdam airport]. While there, together with Dr. Lindner
of the earth sciences department of the University of Utrecht and officer
Krone who had invited me, examined the object which crashed through the
roof of an iron foundry in Weert on 22 July.
-
- To make a long story short, it is quite possible, but
NOT YET CERTAIN, that we have the fifth recovered Dutch meteorite, and
the first iron meteorite.
-
- It is a bizarre object. Dr. Lindner and I are both of
the opinion that its form doesn,t resemble that of a meteorite at all,
but its texture does. A judgment of more or less "definitely not
impossible!" A definite conclusion can only be drawn in this case
after laboratory testing, and therefore I do NOT say here that it very
certainly is a meteorite.
-
- Dr Lindner has taken the object with him for analysis
in Utrecht. A piece will be sawn off for compositional study and the rest
will go into an instrument to measure short-lived radio-isotopes.
-
- A photo was already published about two weeks ago in
the Telegraaf [Dutch daily newspaper]. I saw it then, but in appearance
it absolutely did not resemble anything whatsoever I had ever seen before
in the field of meteoritics. Just the same, the texture is very believable
if you hold it in your hands, with fusion crust or something that looks
a lot like it.
-
- It is a slightly tapered, cylindrical piece of metal,
with a dark brown-black "fusion crust".
-
- Dimensions: maximum length approx. 42 mm (1.65 inches)
minimum thickness approx. 14 mm (0.55 inches)
-
- Very exceptional.
-
- www.over.tospace
Ross Dowe
|
