By: Alexander Zhang

University of Helsinki, Finland- Scientists have recently linked a meteorite from the 1970s with its fiery tail. The abnormal “rock” was found by an Austrian forest ranger, Josef Pfefferle, near Ischgl, who took it home and put it in a box for 32 years.

A meteoroid is the tiny portion of an asteroid that is left when the asteroid burns through the atmosphere of the Earth. Meteoroids can be classified into three different categories: stony, iron, and stony-iron, and this particular meteoroid is categorized as stony.

Scientists at the University of Helsinki in Finland, such as Maria Gritsevich, used a system of sky viewing cameras and instruments in Germany, which helped them narrow down the search to three possibilities. After days of difficult calculations, they finally determined that the meteorite was indeed the fireball that appeared on November 24, 1970.

Scientists have determined the speed of the meteorite to be around 45,000 miles per hour. This helped them make the conclusion that the meteorite came from inside the solar system, and that it orbited the sun close to Earth.
The meteorite was over two pounds, relatively large compared to other meteorites, and was found to be in a better condition than other meteorites.