Moss meteorite

Moss
kg
Strewn field	Yes

Moss is a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite that fell over the communities of Rygge and Moss in Østfold county, southeast southern Norway in the morning of midsummer day, July 14, 2006.

The last time a type CO3 meteorite fell from the sky was in 1937 with

fall in January 2000.

History

Prelude

The summer of 2006 was the meteorite summer in Norway. The summer was very warm and dry. It was perfect weather to protect the valuable droppings that the skies let fall over Norway. It started in the beginning of June when on the 7th a very large meteor explosion was seen and heard over large areas in northernmost Norway. Although no meteorites was found from that event, its size stirred a whole world of meteorite aficionados and a stunned scientific community in Norway and abroad.

Then on the 10th of July it was announced on

rock from a nearby source.

But then, incredible as it was, just four days later the skies opened for a true meteorite fall event. This turned out to be the 13th find of a meteorite in Norway. At the same time its 9th fall.

As if this was not enough, at the end of August a very large fireball was seen north from

, almost along the whole coast of the country, but no meteorites were found.

Fall

At about 10:20 a.m. on the 14th of July a large meteor was seen in broad daylight by a large number of people heading north-northwest over

. Over Rygge and Moss a loud explosion and a rumbling sound was heard. A man near his summer cabin in Rygge saw and heard a small piece of stone hit an aluminium sheet about 2 meter away. This was the only directly observed impacting stone from the fall.

Finds

In all there were five separate finds^[2][3][4] of the Moss CO3.6 meteorite. They distributed over a strewnfield about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long from southeast in Rygge to northwest in parts of north Moss.

The largest find, the

, was in several tens of pieces, part of it being smashed while hitting a fence. It was almost 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) in weight. The total weight of all the finds was over 4 kilograms (8.8 lb).^[1]

Classification and scientific studies

Several scientific papers have come out on the closer study of the meteorite. The first preliminary study of August 2006 showed that it contains numerous small

.

It has been classified as

, C2-alkyl benzene and traces of biphenyl, benzonitrile and aliphatic hydrocarbones.

The shock stage is S2.

References

See also

• Glossary of meteoritics