Updated:2013-08-22

Meteorite Action!

2009-02-15 : Ash Creek (U.S.A)

Spatial and Temporal Informations

Location of fall
Ash Creek (Texas, U.S.A)
Coordinates
31°48'18" N, -97°0'36" E
Date of fall
February 15, 2009 11h 00mn LT
February 15, 2009 17h 00mn UT

Video

Click on thumbnail or download
Eddie Garcia (News 8 Austin) Video - Austin/Texas
Video : Eddie Garcia (News 8 Austin) (Austin, Texas)

  • AVI (xvid) ( 320x240 ): 3120 Ko
  • MPEG       ( 320x240 ): 2176 Ko
Beverly Roady (Police DC) Video - Plano/Texas
Video : Beverly Roady (Police DC) (Plano, Texas)

Photo

First team to find stone February 17, 2009

One of the first hunting teams

 
Credit: meteoritecollector.org
 An early team to the strew field included Doug Dawn (from Monterey, Mexico), Dima Sadilenka, and Sergy Petikhov (both from Moscow, Russia)

The first stone found by the early team (in situ)

 
Credit: meteoritecollector.org
 

Second team to find pieces February 9, 2009

Dilulio and Preston Starr, the observatory manager at the University of North Texas, have found the meteorites, Wednesday at 17 am, 2 hours after the beginning of their research began in Fort Worth, thanks to calculate inferred from all the witnesses they received.(from www.corsicanadailysun.com article) DiIulio said he and Starr wound their way to West and stopped at the Czech Bakery for a snack. A farmer, how noticed their official NASA-UNT outfits, approached them and asked what they were doing.“Are you guys looking for the sonic boom that rattled my walls?” DiIullio recalled the farmer asking. The farmer told the professors they should head southeast of West. DiIulio and Starr spotted the sheriff and a deputy at a gas station near the location provided by the farmer. The deputy owned some land nearby and offered to help them find the meteorite. At 5 p.m., after walking a few minutes down a gravel road, Starr and DiIulio spotted it - a small, charcoal-colored ball. Five minutes later, they found another. They didn’t use any fancy electronics - just a map, truck and their eyes. “Imagine that,” DiIulio said. “A little piece of charcoal sitting on a gravel - right there.” (from The Dallas Morning News/Sarah Perry articles)

 
Credit: Max Faulkner / Star-telegram
 UNT scientists Ron DiIulio and Preston Starr

 
Credit: Max Faulkner / Star-telegram
 UNT scientists Ron DiIulio and Preston Starr

Febrary 19, 2009

 
Credit: Paul Moseley / Star-telegram
 Michael Farmer (right) team with each pieces

Physical and kinetics Informations

Sound
sonicbooms were widely heard for a duration of 20–30 s in the area from Hubbard to Aquilla. Strong sonic booms were widely reported from Hubbard and Penelope. J. Trussell heard a rumbling, which initially vibrated a window.
Total known weight (TKW)
~12 kg
~400 fragments
Classification
Ordinary chondrite (L6) breccia, S3, W0

Lien

The transient sky
Meteorites Fround From Last Friday’s Texan Daylight Fireball (followed by correction on first finder)
February 20, 2009
CNN
'I don't know what I saw,' videographer says of fireball
February 16, 2009
foxnews
Pieces of Texas Meteorite Found
February 19, 2009
Michael Farmer meteorites
Ash Creek meteorite - hunt, radar detection and strewnfield
 
Meteoritical Bulletin Database
Ash Creek - information
 
The Finney Collection of Meteorites
Ash Creek Meteorites: Hunter's Collection
 

Reference

The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 96, September 2009
Michael K. WEISBERG1, Caroline SMITH, Gretchen BENEDIX, Christopher D. K. HERD, Kevin RIGHTER, Henning HAACK, Akira YAMAGUCHI, Hasnaa CHENNAOUI AOUDJEHANE and Jeffrey N. GROSSMAN
Meteoritics & Planetary Science 44 (2009), pp. 1355-1397