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The phenomenon of light at dusk on November 7 stunned thousands of Swedes. Now the unique meteor behind the light has been found. “So much fun and fantastic,” says Anders Zetterqvist, who along with Andreas Forsberg found the meteorite.
Dan Holtstam, collection manager for the Swedish Museum of Natural History, says the find is highly unusual.
– Since the 1950s a meteorite has not been found in connection with a fall in Sweden, he says.
– It’s a fantastic event. Keep in mind that this meteorite traveled approximately 400 million miles before reaching us. The origin is the asteroid belt beyond the planet Mars. Most iron meteorites are as old as the solar system – 4.5 billion years. There is not much you can look at with your own eyes and touch that is older. The meteorite is from the beginning of the solar system.
Extremely high speed
Eric Stempels, an astronomer at Uppsala University, says that the original mass of the meteorite when it struck Earth’s atmosphere was nine tons.
– It may seem strange that nine tons of iron disappear into the atmosphere, but it is so. What’s left is a 14-kilo bundle plus chips, he tells TT.
What was the speed of the meteorite when it hit the ground?
– Extremely high speed. 150 meters per second or 500 kilometers per hour.
Here is the main piece of the meteorite fall observed on November 7, 2020. It weighs 14 kilograms and was found outside Enköping by Andreas Forsberg and Anders Zetterqvist. Photo: Photo: Swedish Museum of Natural History / Brochure / TT
So should you be happy that I didn’t know anyone?
– Yes, but the chances of it hitting someone are incredibly small. Humans take up very little space on earth, Stempels says.
After the celestial phenomenon, which was experienced by hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Svealand on November 7, Stempels calculated the most likely impact area for a meteorite.
It was near the town of Ådalen in Enköping Municipality and meteorite hunters flocked to the area.
Then the find was made
Andreas Forsberg and Anders Zetterqvist, two Stockholm geologists interested in meteorites, were two of the contenders. After a couple of days of searching, Anders Zetterqvist found suspicious traces on the ground.
– It was a day or so before we knew if it was a meteor impact or if there was an animal that had been there and demolished. But when we put a magnet in the slot, some metal shavings got stuck and then we understood that something had fallen there, says Zetterqvist.
– The meteor hit and bounced. One day we look in one direction and another day in another. But in the end we gave up. There were a lot of people walking around looking, so we thought someone had already taken it.
But investigations by the Swedish Museum of Natural History showed that the track fragments came from an iron meteorite and that gave Forsberg and Zetterqvist new hope. And on December 5, 20 days after finding the crash site, they were paid for their efforts.
Caught in the moss
– It was Andreas who finally found him. And it was by pure chance. He walked through the area about 70 meters from the crash site and saw it. It peeked through moss in one place, says Anders Zetterqvist.
How did you feel when you found it?
– It was really fun, fantastic. It has been a long time since no meteorite was found in Sweden. Especially also since it is an iron meteorite. Only a small percentage of those that fall are iron meteorites. So it was exciting.
Has it been difficult to keep quiet about this since December 5?
– Yes, of course. I really wanted to get away with this a little earlier. But it was Andreas who found it and then had to decide.
Do you own the meteorite if you find it?
– Good question, we believe that it is the right of public access that applies. But it seems a bit confusing. It is now on loan to the Swedish Museum of Natural History. We have left it there and they will examine it there. So we hope it ends there so it can be exhibited to the public.
Fact: meteor
Meteorites are materials from space that fall to Earth. If they are so small that they melt and turn to gas in Earth’s atmosphere before they have time to fall, they are called meteors or shooting stars.
* Meteorites are remnants from the infancy of the solar system and their composition can provide important information about the formation of the solar system and the early Earth.
* The vast majority of meteorites (94 percent) are rocks, the remainder consisting of nickel-containing iron and a small proportion of rock-iron mixtures.
* Many of the meteorites that hit Earth come from asteroids that have collided with each other, split, drifted, and crossed Earth’s orbit. Comet nuclei are also considered a source of certain meteorites.
* Meteorites are unusual. Each year around five newly fallen meteorites are collected around the world. We only know of nine different meteorites that have fallen in Sweden since the mid-19th century.
* The most famous Swedish rock meteorite, named Hessle after the impact site at Uppland, exploded in the atmosphere in 1869, giving rise to a meteor shower where hundreds of individual rocks could be recovered.
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