Meteorite crashes through shed roof in Noord-Holland town; 6th meteorite ever found in Netherlands
An object that crashed through a shed roof in the Noord-Holland town of Broek in Waterland in January, was identified as a meteorite, according to scientists at the Naturalis museum in Leiden. This is the 6th meteorite ever to be found in the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.
The meteorite crashed through the roof of a shed at the speed of a high speed train around 5:00 p.m. on January 11th, shortly after several dashcams recorded a fireball in the air.
The object is a stone meteorite of the type L6 chondrite, weighing about 500 grams. It likely came from a mini-planet circling the sun between Jupiter and Mars, according to the scientists. There is a lot of debris in the so-called planetoid girdle.
The Netherlands' association for weather and astronomy sent the meteorite to Naturalis to examine. "This type of meteorite gives us information about the start of the solar system, 4.5 million years ago.There are no stones of this age on earth", according to the scientists.
Only six meteorites have ever been found in the Netherlands. The Naturalis scientists estimate that one meteorite of this size hits the Netherlands every three to four years, but not all of them are found. The previous meteorite found in the Netherlands was found in Glanerbrug 27 years ago.
