[meteorite-list] Neuschwanstein

From: Dieter Heinlein <dieter.heinlein_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:11 2004
Message-ID: <00b401c24166$d8c8c0a0$bc015150_at_DieterHeinlein>

Hi list,

there have been some comments regarding the weathering of the recently
recovered German meteorite "Neuschwanstein" on this list.
According to my experience with freshly fallen meteorites and also with
our (wet) climate in Central Europe, we expected to see just THIS state
of weathering of the 1.75 kg stony meteorite, that fell on April 6, but was
found only on July 14 -- after lying more that 3 months on the ground.
Some actual images of the "Neuschwanstein" meteorite can be found at
http://www.meteorites.de/en.htm
You will see that this stone is less weathered as it looked like from the
few images that appeared on the web. But the photographers always
wanted to show the "most interesting side" of the stone with the best
contrast, i.e. the side with the rusty spots...

At present the shortlived cosmogenic radioisotopes of this meteorite are
measured at the Max-Planck-Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg.
After that we will make a mould and casts of the complete and so far
uncut stone. Only then, the first piece will be cut off for mineralogical
analysis.

We, as probably many of you, are very anxious to see the results of all the
analyses, but every step has to be done carefully and in the proper order.

With best regards

Dieter Heinlein
DLR Fireball Network
Received on Sun 11 Aug 2002 02:38:37 PM PDT