On the afternoon of August 25, 1994, the quiet village of Baszkówka, near Piaseczno, witnessed a rare and extraordinary event that would later capture the attention of scientists and enthusiasts worldwide.
As the clock neared six, a thunderous sonic boom reverberated through the sky, startling the villagers below. Among them was a local woman working in her field, who looked up just in time to see something unusual disturb the soil about 200 meters away. Startled, she quickly called her brother-in-law and his son to investigate. What they discovered was astonishing: a freshly formed hole in the ground, 1.5 meters in diameter, surrounded by a circular pattern of disturbed earth. At the bottom of the hole, buried about 25 centimeters deep, they found a still-warm stone.
This stone was no ordinary rock—it was a meteorite, perfectly intact and bearing the distinctive radial patterns known as regmaglypts. The meteorite, shaped like a mushroom cap, measured between 25 to 30 centimeters in diameter and weighed a hefty 15.5 kilograms. Its surface was covered in a dark, crusty layer, with the more convex side featuring thumbprint-like indentations created by the intense heat and pressure as it blazed through the Earth’s atmosphere.
The meteorite’s interior, where the crust had chipped away, revealed a grainy, grey-olive rock speckled with rusty spots. This extraordinary specimen, later named “Baszkówka,” is now preserved at the Geological Institute in Warsaw, where it remains a significant subject of study and fascination. The Baszkówka meteorite is celebrated as one of the most beautiful and oriented stones ever found, with its perfect shape and unique features offering invaluable insights into the mysteries of our universe.