Lichtgedanken 02

BY UTE SCHÖNFELDER The hunt for the fireball Researchers obtain their objects of scientific study in many different ways: some cultivate bacteria or plants, others survey test subjects and others still operate measuring equipment or collect water and soil samples. And some researchers are helped by pure chance. Dr Dennis Harries from the Institute of Geosciences had one of his research ob- jects literally fall at his feet. Admittedly, there was a fair hike involved as well. Even a pretty long hike, totalling more than 150 kilometres. But one thing at a time. It is 6 March 2016, a late Sunday eve- ning when a glowing fireball enters the earth’s atmosphere between Salzburg and Passau and traces a bright trail across the sky. The police receive nume- rous emergency calls from anxious resi- dents. At 22.37hrs, the light apparition is also captured by several automatic cameras belonging to the »European Fireball Network« before it fades away not far from the borough of Stubenberg in Lower Bavaria. »That was the typical signature of a meteorite fall,« says Den- 50