Arpu Kuilpu: An H5 from the outer main belt
Patrick Shober, Hadrien A. R. Devillepoix, Eleanor K. Sansom, M. C. Towner, Martin Cupák, Seamus Anderson, G. K. Benedix, L. V. Forman, P. A. Bland, Robert M. Howie, Benjamin A. D. Hartig, M. Laubenstein, Francesca Cary, Andrew Langendam
Abstract
Abstract On June 1, 2019, just before 7:30 p.m. local time, the Desert Fireball Network (DFN) detected a −9.3 magnitude fireball over South Australia near the Western Australia border. The event was observed by six fireball observatories, and lasted for 5 s. One station was nearly directly underneath the trajectory, greatly constraining the trajectory solution. This trajectory's backward numerical integrations indicate that the object originated from the outer main belt with a semimajor axis of 2.75 au. A light curve was also extracted and showed that the body experienced very little fragmentation during its atmospheric passage. A search campaign was conducted with several DFN team members and other volunteers. One 42 g fragment was recovered within the predicted fall area based on the dark flight model. Based on measurements of short‐lived radionuclides, the fragment was confirmed to be a fresh fall. The meteorite, Arpu Kuilpu, has been classified as an H5 ordinary chondrite. This marks the fifth fall recovered in Australia by the DFN, and the smallest meteoroid (≃2 kg) to ever survive entry and be recovered as a meteorite.