"Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland,
Ein Luftstein in seinem Garten fand"
This is how the first lines of a famous poem by Theodor Fontane might read had he lived 135 years later ("Mr von Ribbeck of Ribbeck in Havelland found a stone from the sky in his garden"). But let us start at the beginning.
It was 20 January 2024 at 22:48 CET when the Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky at the Piszkéstető Observatory in Hungary discovered the asteroid 2024 BX1. It entered the Earth's atmosphere and caused a meteorite fall west of Berlin. Subsequently the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V., among others, organized searches.
On the very day of the meteorite fall, Mike Hankey from the USA, founder of the AllSky7 network, calculated a first strewn field. In addition, Sirko Molau organized a search team of AKM members and AllSky7 operators. As a result, we were able to inspect the area around Pessin and Möthlow only 13 hours after the meteorite fall. There are extensive fields here, some of them covered by a thin layer of snow. There was hardly any vegetation and the ground was frozen. Even though the chance of finding anything was very low, we tried our luck and searched some of the fields for meteorites. The Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) also organized a large search team of scientists and students of the TU Berlin led by Lutz Hecht. Their search also remained unsuccessful at first.
A few days after the meteorite fall, Pavel Spurný calculated a more precise strewn field, which also took into account wind data from the Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory. This model showed that the strewn field had to be somewhat further east, near Ribbeck and Berge. It took only four days until the commercial meteorite hunters Filip Samuel Nikodem, Michał Nebelski, Kryspin Kmieciak and Kazimierz Magnet from Poland reported the first find of 2024 BX1. The information was shared on Facebook and then went viral. On 25 January at 11:48 CET the team found a meteorite weighing 171.66 g that had broken into three fragments (find location: 52.627236°, 12.730710° WGS 84). However, they puzzled for a full 15 minutes whether the find really was a meteorite, because the typical black fusion crust was missing. Once it was finally clear what to look for, further finds were reported. Only one day after the first find the two Hungarians Zoltan Balla and Gucsik Bence discovered a meteorite weighing 111.19 g in the forest near Ribbeck. David Göttlich also found a sizeable fragment (37.79 g) of 2024 BX1.
After this good news, and with new strewn field data in hand, we arranged a further search on Saturday, 27 January 2024. Before the search began, however, Peter Lindner and I met the lucky finder of the previous day, David Göttlich. Our aim was to ensure that the meteorite would be handed over to Addi Bischoff of the University of Münster for scientific analysis. David was very cooperative, and so we arranged a meeting with Addi, who was also on site, on the same day.
Our actual search began on an easily accessible field between Ribbeck and Berge. Besides the AKM members Sirko Molau, Marion Rudolph, Ina Rendtel, Manuela & Jürgen Rendtel, Petra & Jörg Strunk, Wolfgang Hamburg, Peter Lindner, Rainer Arlt and Andreas Möller, the AllSky7 operators Felix Bettonvil & Gert-Jan Netjes (Netherlands) and Antal Igaz (Hungary) took part. After only 7 minutes and 30 seconds Ina shouted across the field: "I have something here. Could this be one?". We immediately dropped everything and ran to the find location. And indeed the unbelievable happened: Ina found the very first AKM meteorite! Had Peter and I not examined David Göttlich's meteorite beforehand, identifying it as such would have been very difficult. We carefully recovered the stone from space with rubber gloves and recorded the find location with a GPS device and photos. Then things happened in quick succession, and further fragments were found nearby literally every second. Peter Lindner discovered the largest fragment. It weighs a full 19.55 g. Our finds are probably a larger fragment of 2024 BX1 that broke up in the air. All recovered fragments together weigh 45.89 g. One and a half hours later Manuela and Jürgen Rendtel recovered a meteorite that lay only 85 meters from the first find location. It weighs 21.25 g. In the meantime we met Addi Bischoff to have our finds examined. David Göttlich was also present. Addi quickly confirmed that our meteorites were authentic. As the AKM had been extremely successful and had found several fragments of 2024 BX1, we gave Addi a 4.3 g fragment for mineralogical analysis, from which he prepared a thin section.
In the afternoon our search continued, and on the winter rapeseed field we were combing there were already countless other meteorite hunters. Then, at around 14:00 CET, the sun came out and I called to Peter, who was walking a few meters beside me: "The search is over now. With such high contrast you cannot see anything." But a few moments later I spotted something bright and white on the ground. It was my first meteorite find. However, the meteorite had not survived the impact on the frozen ground undamaged and had shattered into many small fragments. We carefully recovered the material, which was hidden in the sand and also in the leaves of the rapeseed plants. All fragments together weigh 15.59 g.
The freshly fallen meteorites smelled very strongly of hydrogen sulfide, which made identification much easier. Put the stone in the bag, wait one minute, open the bag and smell. If it stinks, it is a genuine meteorite. The farmer who owns the searched field described the situation very vividly: "It smells like my biogas plant". However, he did not like the fact that so many people were walking around on his field. So in the late afternoon the police arrived with three patrol cars and asked the people to leave the field. We got talking with Peter, the farmer, and learned a lot about sowing winter rapeseed. In return we explained why so many people were searching for meteorites on his field in particular.
As winter rapeseed is an expensive and sensitive crop, Peter is worried about his harvest and already expects losses. Peter was very friendly and interested in our work and tolerated us on the fields that had not been sown. As a thank you and a souvenir of the AKM we gave Peter a few fragments of my freshly found meteorite.
On the following Sunday, 28 January 2024, we again arranged to comb the fields in and around Ribbeck. This time we decided to search further east in the strewn field, as we expected smaller but more numerous fragments there. Sirko did not accompany us and searched in the west instead, where the large fragments had been found. His remark "If I don't find anything anyway, at least I don't want to have missed anything big" brought tears of laughter to our eyes. The search was coordinated by Laura Kranich, who had been out with the team of the MfN and DLR the day before and knew which fields had not yet been searched systematically. So we formed a line and searched a field east of the strewn field, south of the calculated central line. Unfortunately our search remained unsuccessful. In the distance we saw the team of the MfN and DLR, so we decided to join them. The systematic search with an estimated 40 people proved to be extremely efficient: within only 30 minutes we witnessed two finds by students of the FU Berlin. The joy about the finds was expressed in hugs, cheers and tears of happiness. One finder was even celebrating her birthday that day. Unfortunately Petra & Jörg Strunk had to leave for their well deserved holiday, but not without being richly rewarded. Before their departure we received a WhatsApp message from the two: Find! On the way to the car Petra discovered a meteorite weighing 4.77 g at around 13:15 CET. Antal Igaz, operator of the AMS18 camera from Hungary, also found a meteorite weighing 25.48 grams at around 16:15 CET. The find location was the same field on which we had made our numerous finds on Saturday.
As I had commitments during the week, I unfortunately had to be patient and watch on the internet as numerous further meteorite finds were reported. But on the following weekend, 3 February 2024, the time had finally come and Sirko, André, Ina and I drove to the strewn field again. While Sirko and André stayed near Ribbeck, Ina and I explored the eastern end, as smaller meteorites in the range of 2 to 5 g had been found there. Our search focused on the fields south east of Berge. We were accompanied by Alex Folta and Sang-Hyeok Lee, who had traveled directly from South Korea with jet lag, without sleep and without a break. The search conditions were anything but ideal, as storm and rain soaked our trousers and shoes. Despite all adversities, at 13:50 CET I discovered a small oriented meteorite weighing 2.86 g in the shape of a drop. Soaked, frozen and hungry, but overjoyed, Ina and I then visited the Alte Brennerei in Ribbeck, which has fully adapted to meteorite tourism. There was meteorite cake, with pears of course, and the owner Lukas Mückenfett has written a meteorite song, which he presented to the guests proudly and with great enthusiasm. The cake tasted excellent, and as a thank you we showed Lukas the meteorite we had found. On the drive back to Berlin we received a message from Alex and Sang-Hyeok. They too were overjoyed, because shortly after we had parted, both had made a find.