Trajectory, recovery, and orbital history of the Madura Cave meteorite

Abstract

On June 19, 2020 at 20:05:07 UTC, a fireball lasting 5.5s was observed above Western Australia by three Desert Fireball Network observatories. The meteoroid entered the atmosphere with a speed of 14.00±0.17 km s‐1 and followed a 58° slope trajectory from a height of 75 km down to 18.6 km. Despite the poor angle of triangulated planes between observatories (29°) and the large distance from the observatories, a well‐constrained kilo‐size main mass was predicted to have fallen just south of Madura in Western Australia. However, the search area was predicted to be large due to the trajectory uncertainties. Fortunately, the rock was rapidly recovered along the access track during a reconnaissance trip. The 1.072 kg meteorite called Madura Cave was classified as an L5 ordinary chondrite. The calculated orbit is of Aten type (mostly contained within the Earth’s orbit), only the second time a meteorite was observed on such an orbit, after Bunburra Rockhole. Dynamical modeling shows that Madura Cave has been in near‐Earth space for a very long time. The dynamical lifetime in near‐Earth space for the progenitor meteoroid is predicted to be ~87 Myr. This peculiar orbit also points to a delivery from the main asteroid belt via the ν6 resonance, and therefore an origin in the inner belt. This result contributes to drawing a picture for the existence of a present‐day L chondrite parent body in the inner belt.

The Golden meteorite fall: Fireball trajectory, orbit, and meteorite characterization

“…The pre‐atmospheric orbit for Golden indicates its immediate escape region was in the inner main belt, with a high likelihood of association with the Hungaria group. We suggest Golden most likely originates from a parent body in the Hungaria region and is further evidence for multiple immediate parent bodies for L‐chondrites as has been suggested by others (e.g., Devillepoix et al., 2022; Jenniskens et al., 2019). In this picture, the contemporary flux of L‐chondrites originates from a series of bodies having undergone relatively recent (10s of Ma) collisions in the IMB, consistent with their CRE ages and the Yarkovsky drift time required to reach the υ 6 or Hungaria “ejection” hatches.…”

“…(2006); (22) Devillepoix et al. (2022). Highlighted falls have gas retention ages consistent with the 470 Ma shock event associated with the LCPB.…”

“…However, contemporary L‐chondrites could be delivered from more interior resonances such as the 3:1 after spending significant time undergoing Yarkovsky drift; they might even originate from another family such as Ino (Meier et al., 2017). This hypothesized link with Gefion has been called into question by recent work (e.g., McGraw et al., 2018) who find that Gefion family members do not have reflectance spectra compatible with L‐chondrites as well as others (Devillepoix et al., 2022; Jenniskens et al., 2019) who note that some L‐chondrite orbits are incompatible with a Gefion source.…”

Once in a summer: Fall history of the JaH 073 strewn field, Sultanate of Oman

“…The continued work of the Czech part of the European Fireball Network and more recent installations in North America, Australia, and Europe, for example, the Global Fireball Observatory (Devillepoix et al., 2020) and the global FRIPON camera network (Colas et al., 2020), have helped to increase the number of falls recovered with the aid of all‐sky fireball cameras to over 40. The tracking data, obtained with video devices and by meteorite tracking networks (e.g., Ceplecha, 1961; Devillepoix et al., 2022; Halliday, 1971; Jenniskens et al., 2019; Oberst et al., 1998; Spurný et al., 2009), show that more than 90% of the meteoroids undergo atmospheric fragmentation (e.g., Ceplecha et al., 1993). Although meteorite tracking observations have considerably increased the number of fresh meteorite recoveries on the ground, only few, for example, Bunburra Rockhole (Bland et al., 2009; Spurný et al., 2012) and Almahata Sitta (Jenniskens et al., 2009), fell in relatively flat desert regions, where a nearly 100% recovery of fragments on the ground is feasible.…”

“…The tracking data, obtained with video devices and by meteorite tracking networks (e.g., Ceplecha, 1961;Devillepoix et al, 2022;Halliday, 1971;Jenniskens et al, 2019;Oberst et al, 1998;Spurn y et al, 2009), show that more than 90% of the meteoroids undergo atmospheric fragmentation (e.g., Ceplecha et al, 1993). Although meteorite tracking observations have considerably increased the number of fresh meteorite recoveries on the ground, only few, for example, Bunburra Rockhole (Bland et al, 2009;Spurn y et al, 2012) and Almahata Sitta (Jenniskens et al, 2009), fell in relatively flat desert regions, where a nearly 100% recovery of fragments on the ground is feasible.…”