{"id":42283,"date":"2026-08-06T10:02:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T08:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=42283"},"modified":"2026-08-06T12:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:23:23","slug":"meteorite-fall-69-g-near-masterton-wairapana-lower-north-island-new-zealand-at-222627-local-on-28-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=42283","title":{"rendered":"Meteorite fall (~ 68 g) near Masterton, Greater Wellington Region, Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand at 10:26:02-07 (UTC) on 28 July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After six days of searching four potential meteorites (8 g (Steve Wyn-Harris, 31 July), 9 g (3 August), 12 g (2 August) and 39 g (Liam McGovern, 3 August ?), probably ordinary chondrites) of the bolide above New Zealand’s lower North Island at ~10:26:02-07 UTC (22:26:02-07 local) on 28th July 2026 have been found on farmland north of Masterton, Wairarapa by members of a 12-people search team (Steve Wyn-Harris, Bruce Charlier, Don French and others) organized by Fireballs Aoetearoa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The atmospheric trajectory of the fireball and the dark flight trajectory were calculated by scientists from New Zealand, Canada and Scotland based on Fireballs Aotearoa’s meteor camera recordings. The meteoroid with an initial mass between about 10 to 20 kg was recorded entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere at a steep angle at an altitude of ~90 km with an entry speed of 14 km\/s. At an altitude of about 30 km above the ground the meteoroid started to fragment during several fragmentation events. After about 7 seconds at the end of its luminous trail at an altitude of about 18 km the remaining mass had a final speed of about 2 km\/s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More meteorites could probably be found between four or five kilometres north of Masterton. Steve Wyn-Harris calls out to the public saying \u201cShould people find black rocks in the area surrounding Masterton that they suspect could be a meteorite, they should photograph the rock and location, carefully bag the sample and contact FireballsAotearoa@gmail.com<\/strong> to confirm its origin. Please respect landowners rights!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview with Steve Wynn-Harris on RNZ Afternoons at 1:10 pm (local) on 6 August 2026 (MP3, 13:55 min.)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The largest fragment weighing about 39 grams was found by Liam McGovern, probably on 3 August 2026. Photo: Bruce Charlier<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 8-gram find in situ was found by Steve Wyn-Harris on 31 July 2026 after about 30 minutes of searching. When found Steve Wyn-Harris initially did not considered it to be a meteorite. Later a kitchen magnet was put on it, a treatment which should in general avoided at all costs by amateur searchers. Photo: Steve Wyn-Harris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bolide<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The bolide above Mount Ruapehu and Mount Tongariro, 6-second stacked photo, recorded by a volcano camera trained on Mount Tongariro and Mount Ruapehu on the central plateau. Photo: GeoNet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bolide captured with a MallinCam All Sky Cam from Lower Hutt in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Photo and Video: SparkyNZL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bolide’s atmospheric trajectory. Image: Fireballs Aotearoa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A stacked night footage from one of the Fireball Cameras showing the meteor. Photo: Fireballs Aotearoa Backpaddock Lakes NZ005T camera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Calculated orbit of the rock (green) immediately before it crashed into Earth. The path shows that it was derived from between Mars (red) and Jupiter (pale brown), which is the Asteroid Belt. Earth is blue.” Image: Fireballs Aotearoa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After six days of searching four potential meteorites (8 g (Steve Wyn-Harris, 31 July), 9 g (3 August), 12 g (2 August) and 39 g (Liam McGovern, 3 August ?), probably ordinary chondrites) of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1832],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42283"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42353,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42283\/revisions\/42353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}