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    Exactly 28 years ago a meteorite fell on a village near Piaseczno

    Indeed, the inhabitants of Baszkówka did not expect this. On 25 August 1994, one of the most beautiful, so-called oriented stones in the world fell in the village of Baszkówka near Piaseczno.

    On a hot afternoon, just before six o’clock, a sonic boom could be heard coming from the vicinity of the zenith. An inhabitant of Bakszówka, who was working in the field at the time, lifted her head and saw a movement on the surface of cultivated land, -200 m away from her. She called her brother-in-law and his son. The men found a hole in the ground, 1.5 m in diameter, around which a circular area had formed. In the hole, at a depth of about 25 cm/ 9.84 in., there was still a slightly warm stone. The single specimen of a meteorite with radial regmaglypts was recovered immediately.

     

    The meteorite was shaped like a mushroom hat with a diameter of 25-30 cm/ 9.84-11.8 in. and a weight of 15.5 kg/ 34.7 lbs. The surface of the meteorite is covered with a crust. The more convex side of the specimen is conical, covered with thumbprint-sized indentations in the surface of larger meteorites formed by ablation as the meteorite passes through a planet’s atmosphere, probably caused by vortices of hot gas (regmaglypts), radiating radially from the top towards the edges. In the unshelled areas, grainy grey-olive coloured rock with rusty flecks is visible. “Baszkówka” is stored at the Geological Institute in Warsaw. 

     

     

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