[meteorite-list] Fireballs & Known Meteor Showers => Mazapil

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Greg inquired:

"Has a meteorite "fall" ever been attributed to a comet? If so, do
 they know which one? I remember reading that Tagish Lake may be."


Hi Greg and List,

The Mazapil (IAB-sLL) iron was once believed to have fallen during a star shower!

BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris - Meteorites in History, p. 166:

At the end of the nineteenth century, there was no sufficiently convincing factual
data that favored the theory that metorites originated in nebulae and/or comets, or
that they were pieces of a planetary body. Some support for the cometary theory
accrued from the fall of the 4-kg Mazapil meteoritic iron during a star shower on
27 November 1885, since the fragments of Biela's comet, previously dispersed,
were thought to have caused the shower.

Best wishes,

Bernd