Astron. Astrophys. 337, L5-L8 (1998)

Letter to the Editor

On the airburst of large meteoroids in the Earth's atmosphere

The Lugo bolide: reanalysis of a case study

Luigi Foschini

CNR-Institute FISBAT, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy (e-mail: L.Foschini@fisbat.bo.cnr.it)

Received 31 March 1998 / Accepted 14 July 1998

Abstract

On January 19, 1993, a very bright bolide (peak magnitude -23) crossed the sky of Northern Italy, ending with an explosion approximately over the town of Lugo (Emilia Romagna, Italy). The explosion (14 kton of energy) generated shock waves which were recorded by six local seismic stations. A reanalysis of the available data leads us to the hypothesis that the meteoroid was a porous carbonaceous chondrite, somehow similar in constitution to the asteroid 253 Mathilde.

Key words: meteors, meteoroids minor planets

Send offprint requests to: L. Foschini

This article contains no SIMBAD objects.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Lugo bolide
• 3. The reanalysis: aerodynamics
• 4. The reanalysis: explosion energy
• 5. Further results and discussion
• 6. Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1998

Online publication: August 6, 1998
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