The Meteorite by the Fairy-Tale Castle
Sky cameras tracked a fireball so precisely that searchers found the meteorite near a fairy-tale castle.
What was reported
On the night of 6 April 2002, a bright fireball crossed southern Germany. Cameras of the European Fireball Network photographed it from several stations, letting scientists calculate where any pieces should have landed.
Searchers found a 1.75 kg fragment that July near Neuschwanstein Castle, and more pieces turned up later, one just over the border in Austria.
Explanations offered
Its orbit turned out to be almost identical to that of the Příbram meteorite, which fell in 1959 and was the first ever tracked by cameras, suggesting both came from the same stream of space debris. It's a rare kind of stony meteorite called an enstatite chondrite.
- When
- 6 April 2002
- Where
- Near Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany
- Witnesses
- A network of sky cameras, then searchers
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.