{"id":16463,"date":"2018-10-02T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T07:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=16463"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:51:13","slug":"renchen-prov-meteorite-fall-992-2-g-l5-6-s4-w0-on-10-july-2018-at-232948-cest-212948-utc-near-renchen-ortenau-district-baden-wurttemberg-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=16463","title":{"rendered":"RENCHEN meteorite fall (~ 1227.69, L5-6, S4, W0) on 10 July 2018 at 23:29:48 CEST (21:29:48 UTC) near Renchen, Ortenau district, Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last update: 11 March 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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8.62-gram fragment of Renchen 3 at its find location. Photo: karmaka<\/p><\/div>\n

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The first find (Renchen-1, 11.9 g)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Renchen-1 specimen (11.9 grams). Photo: D. Heinlein<\/p><\/div>\n

Equipped with a preliminary strewn field map provided by Pavel Spurn\u00fd on July 14, 2018 and coordinated by Dieter Heinlein the meteorite hunters Ralph Sporn and Martin Neuhofer were sent to the calculated strewn field on 15 July and stayed there until 18 July, mainly to explore the area. Sporn and Neuhofer returned to the strewn field on 22 July and on 24 July around noon Ralph Sporn found Renchen-1 (11.9 g), an almost complete specimen, in a cherry orchard at location 48\u00b034’26.4” N, 8\u00b001’8.8 E<\/a>, about 1.48 km southeast of Renchen.<\/p>\n

<\/div>The second find (Renchen-2 (main mass), 955 g)<\/span><\/strong>
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On 30 July around noon Pavel Spurn\u00fd transferred another map of the part of the strewn field where larger masses were expected to have fallen to Sporn and Neuhofer who had returned to the strewn field for their third search campaign on 29 July. On 31 July Ralph Sporn and Martin Neuhofer found a large mass of 955 grams with broken faces next to a small shallow impact pit on a meadow near the Heuweg<\/em>, east of Holchenbach<\/em> in the south of the communal district Rheinau between the forests Korker Wald<\/em> and H\u00fcrbewald<\/em> about ~5.4 km north-west of Renchen. The locations of Renchen-1 and Renchen-2 were used by Dr Spurn\u00fd to refine his strewn field calculation by 8 August 2018. Radio nuclides of the specimen have been measured at Max-Planck-Institut f\u00fcr Kernphysik (MPIK) in Heidelberg. The soil around and including the impact hole has been cut out and saved by the finders, similar to what has recently been done with the impact pits of the Stubenberg and Mangui falls. Later the finders sold the main mass to Abu Dhabi where it is exhibited in the new Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Renchen main mass (No. 10 in photo above) in the permanent exhibition of the Abu Dhabi Museum of Natural History. Photos: M. Farmer (March 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n