#tintigny

From outer space to @rbins! The meteorite of Tintigny is the sixth one found in Belgium, and a very special one: a ‘eucrite’ - they make up only 2% of meteorites in the world (just eight are known in Europe). Eucrites are chunks of Vesta, the second biggest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Those meteorites can tell us more about how that asteroid was formed and about the historic volcanic activity there. And it’s a polymict eucrite: it has been broken and fused several times, witnessing of several previous impacts on Vesta.

The story behind this meteorite is just great! In 1971 a farmer in Tintigny (province of Luxemburg) heard a BANG and noticed that the roof of his barn was pierced. He found a glossy black fist-size stone that was still burning hot. His son took the mysterious piece to school and his teacher thought it was a meteorite. He could keep it to learn children about astronomy. He became a priest and took the meteorite with him. He preserved the precious stone for 47 years!

In January 2018 he returned the meteorite to the family of the witness and they decided to offer it to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. This week the Tintigny meteorite was inaugurated and will join the five other Belgian meteorites in our Mineral Hall.