[meteorite-list] Fireballs & Known Meteor Showers => Mazapil

From: bernd.pauli at paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: 16 Apr 2010 09:39:22 UT
Message-ID: <DIIE.00000072000048BE_at_paulinet.de>

Greg inquired:

"Has a meteorite "fall" ever been attributed to a comet? If so, do
 they know which one? I remember reading that Tagish Lake may be."


Hi Greg and List,

The Mazapil (IAB-sLL) iron was once believed to have fallen during a star shower!

BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris - Meteorites in History, p. 166:

At the end of the nineteenth century, there was no sufficiently convincing factual
data that favored the theory that metorites originated in nebulae and/or comets, or
that they were pieces of a planetary body. Some support for the cometary theory
accrued from the fall of the 4-kg Mazapil meteoritic iron during a star shower on
27 November 1885, since the fragments of Biela's comet, previously dispersed,
were thought to have caused the shower.

Best wishes,

Bernd
Received on Fri 16 Apr 2010 05:39:22 AM PDT