At 20.37 local time on March 1, a very bright fireball crossed the sky over Southern Norway. A sonic bang! followed. Numerous meteorites are expected to have reached the ground and hundreds of observations are now studied in order to find a smallest possible area to search.
av Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard
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The fireball imaged with an all-sky-camera from Vestby (Southeast of Oslo). The fireball can be seen in the upper part of the image. Estimated mag -13 from Oslo (brighter closer to the track).
Photo: Arne Danielsen |
The fireball was visible from a vast area, from Trondheim in the North, Ålesund and Molde to the Northeast, Bergen and Stavanger to the West, Kristiansand and Halden in the South and Southeast and all of the regions Østlandet and Sørlandet.
From the small city Jevnaker North of Oslo the ground was lit up by the fireball and a few seconds later we could watch numerous pieces fall towards the ground.
About one and a half minute later a bang-sound was heard. More than 600 observations have so far been received from people all over Southern Norway, as well as Southern Sweden. The sound was heard from a broad band stretching southwestwards over central parts of Østlandet.
The observations suggest that at least 8-10 pieces may have reached the ground as meteorites, but there could be many more small pieces.
This fireball was imaged from Norway some years ago. The fireball seen on March 1 was substantially brighter.
Photo: Arne Danielsen
Another fireball imaged from Lillehammer, Norway on March 2, 2010.
Photo: Bernt Andreassen
THE SEARCH IS GOING ON
The observations suggest that meteorites have reached the ground somewhere to the South or Southwest of the mountain Norefjell (not very far from Hønefoss) in the county Buskerud. A substantially more accurate fall area will be worked out in a couple of days. This news story will be updated!
Ragnar Martinsen and his family holding the meteorite that fell down at their cabin close to Rygge, Moss, Norway in July, 2006. Ragnar Martinsen (in the middle) heard a whoosh and watched the small rock hit a piece of metal on the ground.
Photo: Morten Bilet
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