The fall of the Pu
erto Lápice eucrite
occurred in the afternoon of May 10, 2007,
17h57m20±2s UTC. This impressive daylight bolide
was witnessed by thousands of people from Spain, and
is being carefully studied in the framework of the
Spanish Meteor and Fireball Network (SPMN) in a
similar way that we previously did after the fall of the
Villalbeto de la Peña L6 or
dinary chondrite [1,2]. Unfortunately, there is no video records to our knowledge
of the Puerto Lápice even
t, but some eyewitnesses
were able to take pictures of the persistent train from at
least two different locations. Nocturn astrometric calibrations from both places have been obtained, and
these data together with
in situ
trajectory measurements with theodolite of casual eyewitnesses have allowed to estimate the atmo
spheric trajectory and the
radiant with reasonable accu
racy. A preliminary trajectory reconstruction by the SPMN obtained only two
weeks after the event helped
to recover the first meteorite specimens. The meteorite was presented on June
11, 2007 during the International Conference Meteoroids 2007 in Barcelona. In addition to the fall phenomena, the interest of this bolide lies in the eucrite nature
of the recovered meteorite,
that has been recently reported in the Meteoritical Bulletin [3]. Of the 200
eucrites known until 2000, only 25 correspond to observed falls, but the fall circumstances are poorly
known except in few remarkable cases like e.g. Pasamonte.
Thesis Collection
Last Deposit
