Updated:2013-08-22

Meteorite Action!

1970-01-03 : Lost City (U.S.A)

Spatial and Temporal Informations

Location of fall
Lost City (Oklahoma, U.S.A)
Coordinates
36°0'11" N, -95°5'42" E
Date of fall
January 3, 1970 20h 14mn LT
January 4, 1970 02h 14mn UT
Initial velocity
14.1485 ± 0.0012 km/s
Start height of bolide
86 km
Terminal height of bolide
19 km
Fireball terminal velocity
3.4 km/s
Trajectory slope (// horizontal)
38 °

Physical and kinetics Informations

Maximum absolute magnitude
-12 ( 28 km of height )
Pre-atmospheric mass of the meteoroid
163 ± 5 kg
Total known weight (TKW)
17.232 kg
4 fragments:
  • January 9, 1970 : 9820 g 20x17x14 cm
  • January 17, 1970 : 272 g 6x6x2 cm
  • February 2, 1970 : 6580 g 18x14x10 cm
  • May 4,1970 : 640 g 8x6x4 cm
Density
3.73 g cm-3
Classification
Ordinary chondrite H5 (bronzite and olivine)
Cosmic-ray exposure age
8 ± 2 Million years

Orbital

Semimajor axis (a)
1.6 UA
Inclination (i)
11.98 °
Eccentricity (e)
0.417
Longitude of ascending nodet (W)
283.04 °
Argument of perihelion (w)
161 °
Perihelion distance (q)
0.933 UA
Aphelion distance (Q)
2.27 UA
TXT_VUE_DESSUS
Vue parallele au grand axe
Vue parallele à la ligne des noeuds

Reference

Lost City Meteorite - its Recovery and a Comparison with Other Fireballs
McCrosky, R. E.; Posen, A.; Schwartz, G.; Shao, C.-Y.
SAO Special Report #336 (1971), pp. 1-41
Luminous efficiency based on photographic observations of the Lost City
fireball and implications for the influx of interplanetary bodies onto Earth
Ceplecha, Z.
Astronomy and Astrophysics 311 (1996), pp. 329-332
The Pribram, Lost City, Innisfree, and Neuschwanstein falls: An analysis of the atmospheric trajectories
M. I. Gritsevich
Solar System Research 42 (2008), pp. 372-390