Mässing meteorite, Massing, Rottal-Inn District, Lower Bavaria, Bavaria, Germanyi

Regional Level Types
Mässing meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Massing	Municipality
Rottal-Inn District	District
Lower Bavaria	Administrative Region
Bavaria	State
Germany	Country

Howardite (achondrite)
Fell 13 Dec 1803, 1.6 kg

Before noon a loud cannon-like roll of ten or so detonations were heard. It was followed by a whirring sound before a small stone penetrated the tiles of a shed. Soon found was the still warm stone with the reek of powder. Only ~60 grams are now preserved, partly because many chemical-mineralogical assays of the 19th century involved destructive analysis. Mässing is now classified as a Howardite and is one of the only 16 Howardite falls witnessed between 1803 and 1994. With so little of Mässing's mass remaining, current research on Mässing has been quite sparse. Pyroxenes, chromite, and troilite were noted in the 19th Century. With more modern techniques but less material to work with, Mason observed both compositionally variable pyroxenes (mostly orthopyroxene) and variable plagioclase.

Howardites are essentially mixtures, often highly brecciated, of Eucritic materials (dominated by plagioclase-pyroxene intergrowths) and Diogenitic materials (dominated by orthopyroxene). They also contain occasional exotic clasts apparently derived from impacts with other meteorites and comets, esp. Carbonaceous Chondrites. It is believed that almost all Howardites, Eucrites, and Diogenites (HED meteorites) are fragments of the asteroid 4 Vesta. However, some 'look-alike' HED meteorites with anomalous oxygen isotopes and Fe/Mn ratios make it clear that not all HED meteorites are from the same parent body. Definitive determinations for the parent body/bodies of specific HED meteorites is still somewhat in the future.


Note: While the meteorite is known as Mässing meteorite, the present name of the town next to which it fell is Massing.

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References