The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor
On February 28, 2021, a fireball dropped ∼0.6 kg of recovered CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in South-West England near the town of Winchcombe. We reconstruct the fireball's atmospheric trajectory, light curve, fragmentation behavior, and pre-atmospheric orbit from optical records contri...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
2023
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170102529 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94724 |
| _version_ | 1848765905888083968 |
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| author | McMullan, S. Vida, D. Devillepoix, Hadrien Rowe, J. Daly, L. King, A. J. Cupak, Martin Howie, Robert Sansom, Ellie Shober, P. Towner, Martin Anderson, S. McFadden, L. Horak, J. Smedley, A.R.D. Joy, K.H. Shuttleworth, A. Colas, F. Zanda, B. O'Brien, A.C. McMullan, I. Shaw, C. Suttle, A. Suttle, M.D. Young, J.S. Campbell-Burns, P. Kacerek, R. Bassom, R. Bosley, S. Fleet, R. Jones, D. McIntyre, M. James, N. Robson, D. Dickinson, P. Bland, Phil Collins, G.S. |
| author_facet | McMullan, S. Vida, D. Devillepoix, Hadrien Rowe, J. Daly, L. King, A. J. Cupak, Martin Howie, Robert Sansom, Ellie Shober, P. Towner, Martin Anderson, S. McFadden, L. Horak, J. Smedley, A.R.D. Joy, K.H. Shuttleworth, A. Colas, F. Zanda, B. O'Brien, A.C. McMullan, I. Shaw, C. Suttle, A. Suttle, M.D. Young, J.S. Campbell-Burns, P. Kacerek, R. Bassom, R. Bosley, S. Fleet, R. Jones, D. McIntyre, M. James, N. Robson, D. Dickinson, P. Bland, Phil Collins, G.S. |
| author_sort | McMullan, S. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | On February 28, 2021, a fireball dropped ∼0.6 kg of recovered CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in South-West England near the town of Winchcombe. We reconstruct the fireball's atmospheric trajectory, light curve, fragmentation behavior, and pre-atmospheric orbit from optical records contributed by five networks. The progenitor meteoroid was three orders of magnitude less massive (∼13 kg) than any previously observed carbonaceous fall. The Winchcombe meteorite survived entry because it was exposed to a very low peak atmospheric dynamic pressure (∼0.6 MPa) due to a fortuitous combination of entry parameters, notably low velocity (13.9 km s−1). A near-catastrophic fragmentation at ∼0.07 MPa points to the body's fragility. Low entry speeds which cause low peak dynamic pressures are likely necessary conditions for a small carbonaceous meteoroid to survive atmospheric entry, strongly constraining the radiant direction to the general antapex direction. Orbital integrations show that the meteoroid was injected into the near-Earth region ∼0.08 Myr ago and it never had a perihelion distance smaller than ∼0.7 AU, while other CM2 meteorites with known orbits approached the Sun closer (∼0.5 AU) and were heated to at least 100 K higher temperatures. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:42:41Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-94724 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:42:41Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-947242024-04-16T08:05:27Z The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor McMullan, S. Vida, D. Devillepoix, Hadrien Rowe, J. Daly, L. King, A. J. Cupak, Martin Howie, Robert Sansom, Ellie Shober, P. Towner, Martin Anderson, S. McFadden, L. Horak, J. Smedley, A.R.D. Joy, K.H. Shuttleworth, A. Colas, F. Zanda, B. O'Brien, A.C. McMullan, I. Shaw, C. Suttle, A. Suttle, M.D. Young, J.S. Campbell-Burns, P. Kacerek, R. Bassom, R. Bosley, S. Fleet, R. Jones, D. McIntyre, M. James, N. Robson, D. Dickinson, P. Bland, Phil Collins, G.S. On February 28, 2021, a fireball dropped ∼0.6 kg of recovered CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in South-West England near the town of Winchcombe. We reconstruct the fireball's atmospheric trajectory, light curve, fragmentation behavior, and pre-atmospheric orbit from optical records contributed by five networks. The progenitor meteoroid was three orders of magnitude less massive (∼13 kg) than any previously observed carbonaceous fall. The Winchcombe meteorite survived entry because it was exposed to a very low peak atmospheric dynamic pressure (∼0.6 MPa) due to a fortuitous combination of entry parameters, notably low velocity (13.9 km s−1). A near-catastrophic fragmentation at ∼0.07 MPa points to the body's fragility. Low entry speeds which cause low peak dynamic pressures are likely necessary conditions for a small carbonaceous meteoroid to survive atmospheric entry, strongly constraining the radiant direction to the general antapex direction. Orbital integrations show that the meteoroid was injected into the near-Earth region ∼0.08 Myr ago and it never had a perihelion distance smaller than ∼0.7 AU, while other CM2 meteorites with known orbits approached the Sun closer (∼0.5 AU) and were heated to at least 100 K higher temperatures. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94724 10.1111/maps.13977 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170102529 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP200102073 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LE170100106 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wiley-Blackwell fulltext |
| spellingShingle | McMullan, S. Vida, D. Devillepoix, Hadrien Rowe, J. Daly, L. King, A. J. Cupak, Martin Howie, Robert Sansom, Ellie Shober, P. Towner, Martin Anderson, S. McFadden, L. Horak, J. Smedley, A.R.D. Joy, K.H. Shuttleworth, A. Colas, F. Zanda, B. O'Brien, A.C. McMullan, I. Shaw, C. Suttle, A. Suttle, M.D. Young, J.S. Campbell-Burns, P. Kacerek, R. Bassom, R. Bosley, S. Fleet, R. Jones, D. McIntyre, M. James, N. Robson, D. Dickinson, P. Bland, Phil Collins, G.S. The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title | The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title_full | The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title_fullStr | The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title_short | The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor |
| title_sort | winchcombe fireball—that lucky survivor |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170102529 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170102529 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170102529 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/94724 |