The Příbram meteorite fell on 7 April 1959 east of

Příbram Příbram (; german: Freiberg in Böhmen, ''Przibram'', or ''Pribram'', in 1939–1945 ''Pibrans'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is well known for its mining history, and mor ...

, former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

(now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

). Four pieces were found, the largest having a mass of (near the village of Luhy, Dolní Hbity municipality). Příbram was the first meteorite whose trajectory was tracked by multiple cameras recording the associated fireball. This allowed its trajectory to be calculated leading to a determination of its orbit and aiding its recovery.

Pieces

Four pieces were found with a total weight of out of an estimated weight before break-up. The largest piece found was probably only the second-largest overall. These four pieces were subsequently named after the villages near which they were found: * Luhy ( Dolní Hbity municipality) * Velká ( Kamýk nad Vltavou municipality) * Hojšín ( Svatý Jan municipality) * Drážkov (Svatý Jan municipality) All pieces are on display in the Czech National Museum in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

History

The fall was preceded by a bright

bolide A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a ...

seen throughout what was then western Czechoslovakia. The light extended to . At an altitude around , the

meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...

broke up. One loud and several quieter explosions were heard. The meteorite was found to have penetrated ploughed land to a depth of , bounced, and fallen further on.

Mineralogy

Classification

References

External links