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Photos by Jnmczurich and Herbert Rabb, as noted. Copyright (c) jnmczurich and H. Rabb. Use allowed - include photographer's name.
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L/LL5
TKW 500 kg. Observed fall June 9, 1866, in the Ukraine.
  
Jnmczurich writes:
Freedom for Ukraine. Stop the aggressor Putin. Stop the war in Ukraine.
The Knyahinya chondrite fell in Nagybereszna, Ungvar, Ukraine, on June 9,1866, at 17:00 hrs local time. After appearance of a fireball and detonations, a shower of probably more than a 1000 stones fell over an area of 3.2 x 1.2 km. Ref. W.Haidinger, Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math. – naturwiss. Kl. 1866, 54, p.200, 475.
Pic 1 and 2: the painting by Othmar Brioschi showing the Knyahinya meteorite fall hanging on the wall in the Meteorite Hall at the NHM Vienna, as well as the depictions from Haidinger's report (1866). Photo credit: H. Raab (2015)
Pic 3 and 4: the weight of the Knyahinya main mass is 286,3 kg (293 kg, ref. Metbase 7.2), broken into three parts. Photo credit: H. Raab (2015)
The Heureka! science exhibition was held in Zurich from May until October 1991 to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation. A 135 kg fragment of the main mass of the Knyahinya meteorites was exhibited there on loan from the NHM Vienna in order to explain the noble gas research activities of the scientists at the ETH Zurich to the general public. A few days before the meteorite was brought to the Heureka! science exhibition, I got a call from ETH Zurich asking if I was interested in carefully cleaning the whole, dusty and dirty 135 kg meteorite with alcohol. Of course I wanted to. It was also fun and by the end of the cleaning I was completely dazed by the alcohol used for cleaning = daily goal achieved by the afternoon... haha!
Pic 5 and 6: to briefly explain about the pictures and why there are boreholes drilled in the fractureed side of the 135 kg mass:
Cosmic rays penetrate rocks producing cosmogenic noble gases at various depths that depend on the initial cosmic ray energy. On the photo of the fracture side are the scientific boreholes, drilled in the 1980s for the investigation of noble gases and the investigation of cosmogenic nuclides. The boreholes were placed over the cross section in order to detect changes in the measured values between the edge and the center of the large meteorite diameter, which allowed conclusions to be drawn about the time spent in space, the cosmic rays and their penetration behavior into solid bodies. The exposure age determinations (how long does a meteorite need to get from the asteroid belt to Earth), measurements of noble gases over different (pre-atmospheric) depths are of great use. The Knyahinya main mass was the largest stony meteorite until the fall of the Jilin stony meteorite in 1976 and is therefore particularly interesting for noble gas measurements.
Pic 7: that's me with the 135 kg Knyahinya (before cleaning with alcohol…)
Before Knyahinya, L.Schultz and P.Signer measured noble gases on drilled core samples from St. Severin, but the broken main mass of Knyahinya, with such a wonderful and easily accessible cross-sectional area almost through the pre-atmospheric center of such a large meteorite, was a lucky event.
Pic 8 and 9: interested readers can find further scientific results on noble gas measurements on the Knyahinya meteorite in following paper: Cosmogenic nuclides and nuclear tracks in the chondrite Knyahinya, Th.Graf, P.Signer, R.Wieler et al., GCA Vol. 54, pp. 2511-2520
Pic 10 and 11: Knyahinya fusion crust and regmaglypts after carefully cleaning the 135 kg mass with alcohol.
About the Natural History Museum, Vienna:
It is the policy of the NHM to allow visitors to photograph the exhibits, but only for personal use. Pictures cannot be used for commercial purposes without written permission. Happily, the MPOD is in the personal use category.
Dr. Ludovic Ferriere is the Curator of the Meteorite Collection (since November 2018) and also the Curator of the Impactite Collection (since September 2019).
The museum is forbidden by law to sell any part of the collection and they have ceased trading, so they are dependent on donations of material and money to expand the collection. For more information:
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Herbert
3/8/2022 1:11:49 PM |
Sorry - the correct coordinates are:
49*00'23.5"N 22*33'07.4"E
49.006527, 22.552045 |
Herbert
3/8/2022 1:08:51 PM |
Thank you, JNMC, for bringing the pictures and the great story.
@Matthias: The coordinates are somewhat off, the actual place of fall is very close to the border of Slovakia, but still within the Ukraine. Note that there is also a memorial site. Point google maps to 48*53'37.0"N 22*27'27.0"E. (Sorry, links are not allowed in comments, so I can not post the link directly.) |
Anne Black
3/6/2022 2:13:14 PM |
Excellent presentation! thank you Juergen, Herbert, Paul, the Vienna Museum, and of course the Programmer! |
John Lutzon
3/6/2022 10:26:06 AM |
Sorry folks, I read the description and asked my question Before looking at the pictures. Pic. 3 - figure 4 mostly explains the answer. |
John Lutzon
3/6/2022 9:16:41 AM |
Without knowledge of my question:- What does such a small strewn field indicate to the knowledgeable? Possibly a vertical - AOA?
Zalyshatysya v bezpets to Ukrainians. |
matthias
3/6/2022 7:15:24 AM |
Yeah, great work, folks. - Today the location of the fall seems to be on Slovakian territory, hard at the border to Ukraine. But, well, meteorites are obviously not interested in nations. They fall on this very planet. |
Bernd Pauli
3/6/2022 4:50:01 AM |
Thanks guys for this nice presentation of the Ukrainian meteorite Knyahinya ! |
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