The smallest pedigree fall event meteorite ever recovered: Pusté Úl'any—Physical, mineralogical, chemical, and radionuclide analyses

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Authors: J. Toth, Pavel P. Povinec, Daniel Ozdín, R. J. Macke, A. J. Timothy Jull, Matthias Laubenstein, Ivan Sýkora, Ivan Kontuĺ, M. Jes̆kovský, Jakub Kaizer, Jakub Zeman, Victory A. J. Jaques
+10 more Tomáš Zikmund, Martin Kareš, Jozef Kaiser, T. Paulech, P. Zigo, Leonard Kornoš, Pavol Matlovič, Jiří Šilha, R. Nagy, Mateusz Żmija
Cited by: 2
References: 38

Abstract

Abstract Pusté Úl'any (PU) is the smallest recovered pedigree fall event meteorite so far and, moreover, was observed during daylight. The results of physical and mineralogical analyses of the new meteorite fall instrumentally observed on June 25, 2022, in the western part of Slovakia are presented. The meteorite fragment of 8.55 g mass was recovered on August 20, 2022, in the strewn field within 100 m of the predicted area of equivalent mass fragments. Mineralogical analyses, computed tomography, physical properties such as bulk and grain densities, as well as magnetic susceptibility were carried out, confirming that PU is an ordinary chondrite of H5 type. Analysis of cosmogenic radionuclides confirmed a fresh fall of the meteorite and helped estimate a pre‐atmospheric radius of the meteorite to be 19 ± 4 cm with a corresponding mass of 98 ± 24 kg, and a minimum cosmic‐ray exposure age of 2–3 Myr.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Astro and Planetary Science Planetary Science and Exploration Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Publication details

Journal / source
Meteoritics and Planetary Science
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
61
Issue
7
Pages
1683–1702
Publication date
4 March 2026
Language
EN