On Sunday, May 1 we were in the town of Świnoujście, when we received the information from Andrzej that the meteorite fell near the town of Giżycko (600 km from the town of Świnoujście). The event took place on Saturday at 6.03 am. The information was sensational, unexpected and it was news that every meteorite fan wanted to hear. After the first excitement, Andrzej requested for help and asked us if we could go there. Because of his work duties he could not go and the matter was urgent.

  The information hit us like a thunderbolt. (Hit like a meteorite I would rather say). By evening, Andrzej had verified the information and sent us a picture of the specimen. Around 4 am on Monday we went to the town of Giżycko. At nine o'clock, when we were in the town of Malbork^[a] Andrzej asked us to visit him in the town of Frombork, for a briefing on the details. The task was not easy: gathering all possible information, eyewitness accounts, making photographic documentation of impact zone and specimens and also to buy some samples to have a new polish meteorite examined and classiffications (categorized). We also wanted negotiate for the purchase of the specimen for the Museum in Frombork. Most importantly – Andrzej gave us a point of contact who had coordinated everything in the town of Giżycko. This was Mr. Roman Rzepka.

  The route from Frombork to Giżycko was like a race in a computer game. We were playing at a very advanced level! We faced a million turns, narrow roads overgrown with trees and many pot holes. To the despair of some road workers, we drove through one section on freshly poured asphalt! About 14.30 we knocked on Roman's door who had been waiting for us. The day before, Roman and his wife were first at the impact site. They also recommended us to the finder of the meteorite. After preliminary findings and clarifying information we drove with Roman to the farm where the meteorite had fallen.

We were made very welcome and we started to work. We wrote a draft report and we bought a couple of samples for study. Unfortunately it was too late to take any pictures. We also talked with the owner about the meteorite and what should be done with it – the most appropriate solution would be to have it as a part of the institutional collections^[1]. Of course we also had an opportunity to talk about meteorites, about the passion and scientific researches. We also discussed some interesting stories about polish meteorites. They could read more in the "Unearthly treasures" – Andrzej's book which he presented to them with a special dedication. They turned out to be very kind and did not want to make a noise in the media. We asked them if we could come the next day and take a few pictures.

  During dinner, Andrzej made contact with Professor Tadeusz Przylibski (University of Technology, Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Wrocław), who was supposed to conduct and coordinate any study. We arrived at the farm on Tuesday morning. We talked about the circumstances of the meteorite strike, photographed the specimen and the entire impact site and accompanied by the hosts we conducted a reconnaissance around the shed, in which the meteorite hit. In the afternoon we said goodbye to our friendly hosts who seemed a bit tired with the situation. We also did not want to abuse their hospitality. We went to the town of Giżycko for a while and amongst rain and snow we drove back to Warsaw.

Mrs. Alfreda wakes up every day around 6 am gets up and makes coffee, lights a cigarette. 30 April 2011 was exactly the same.

A hole in the roof had been made by a meteorite; it is named 'hammer'

The account is as follows:

"I always get up at 6 am. I brewed coffee, lit a cigarette and opened the kitchen to get rid of the cigarette smoke. All of the sudden I heard something, but I did not know what it was. There was a whistle, such as dropping bomb sound, and then there was a big bang. Actually, it was a long rumble. My son Marcin was in the bathroom and he also heard it despite the closed door. We ran out of the house, Marcin in one sock only. We thought that the house was falling apart (We had just changing the covering of the roof – from heavy tiles to lightweight steel tiles). Everything seemed to be alright but there was a hole in the roof over the shed doors. Then we saw broken roof tiles lying on the ground and a large piece of broken tile was hanging over the edge of the roof."

  "Marcin said that maybe some bird dropped something. I said: what kind of bird could do that? We looked at the sky, because aero planes fly very often over our area. Maybe one or someone dropped something? But there were no planes visible at this moment. The sky was cloudless, but the sun shone buy not yet brightly."

  "Five meters from the hole, on a pile of planks we saw a black stone. I picked it up. It was not as cold as any other stone. It was different, maybe a little warmer. I held it for a while and lay it on the ground. I was going to throw it away, but laid it down instead. We returned home and I looked at my watch, it was 6.06. In the courtyard we had spent no more than 3 minutes."

  "Then I went to visit my daughter Anita in Giżycko. She immediately said: Mom, this is a meteorite. Then I remembered how the week before I had watched a film about meteorites with a long haired guy (probably Robert Haag) on The Discovery Channel. We returned to the impact site. Fragments were scattered over a 4–5 meters area. Pieces were lying on the step under the hole in the roof. We picked them up. The remains were gathered later by my daughter and her fiance (husband). We took all the stones home and considered what we should do."

Mrs. Alfreda, a sensible and consciously minded person, shared with us another strange remark:

  "Once, my dad always came to see my husband and at six in the morning they would have a cup of coffee together. I do not get up so early! My father had died in June and my husband survived him by a year. I thought that this meteorite might be a sign. Maybe in heaven they drank coffee together and something has fallen?"

Mrs. Alfreda, her daughter and future son-in-law were searching the area behind the shed for more stones did not find any. Mrs. Alfreda phoned a local newspaper, which in turn informed Mr. Roman Rzepka who is interested in meteorites. The next morning, Mr. Rzepka and his wife visited Mrs. Alfreda and confirmed suspicions of her daughter, that the stone was a meteorite. Mr. Rzepka passed this information to Mr. Andrzej Pilski from an observatory in Frombork. This was when Andrzej told us about it.

Our observations on the meteorite's fall were as follows:

1. A description of sound effect (a single whistle, a single bang, no explosion) indicates that only one stone fell. There was no sound effect suggesting fragmentation. The bang heard by the witnesses was probably caused by the sound wave.

2. The specimen is an oriented-type meteorite and after assembly most of the pieces seemed complete. Probably the fragmentation process occurred at very high altitude.

3. A hole in the roof and marks on the concrete floor and stairs left by the falling stone helped me to determine the approximate direction of flight and angle. It flew from the northeast about 2–3 degrees tilted from the vertical. It struck a perfect shape hole in a thick plank (but did not break it.) This shows it was travelling at great speed^[2].

4. The main mass of the biggest specimen is approximately 813 g and TKW approximately 1066 g. The weights of most of the specimens are given by the owner. Perhaps some pieces are still under the planks lying around the shed. All the specimens were weighed on an electronic Kitchen scale (It was holiday season and we did not take the laboratory scale)^[3].

5. The meteorite looks like an ordinary chondrite type. It has a chondrite pattern shell, very bright interior with exposed small metal and troilite grains. There is no visible chondrules^[4].

6. Searching for more pieces is senseless. The farm is situated on a headland of Wydminskie Lake. Terrain behind the barn is wet and slushy. Due to the repair of the roof of the house, the yard is full of pieces of roof tiles, wood boards, etc.

We returned home exhausted. But the next day, May 4, gave us a really hard time. The telephones went crazy from early morning, and we responded to numerous emails. At the same time Woreczko photographed and weighed samples and I made a record. In the evening we put the first info to http://wiki.meteoritica.pl website. We packed the first batch of samples and ordered the courier services. Professor Tadeusz Przylibski waited for the specimens. He was also sending e-mails with his plan of action. When the samples arrived in Wrocław, they were carried by Professor Przylibski and Tomasz Jakubowski to Marcin Cimała where they were cut and prepared for study. At the same time the professor was anxiously looking for an institute in Europe able to examine short-living isotopes, which would determine how long the meteorite was in space. On Sunday, May 9, at midnight, we received information that the Italians could do it (Dr. Matthias Laubenstein, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy). There was one condition – they must have a specimen by Wednesday May 11, because the test should be carried out within two weeks of falling time. Woreczko was looking for a dependable courier desperately. When the courier took the parcel we were tracking the parcel's route with real concern. "Oh, it is in Paris now, why in Paris?" We started to breath easy when the Italians sent an email that the shipment has arrived. This was on Wednesday at 16.00. Thus, FedEx is a really trustworthy company!

  On Monday Woreczko met with Professor Marek Lewandowski, who took the last batch of samples to Cracow.

Professor Pierre Rochette (CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-an-Provence, France) dealt with one of the samples and during the Academy of Sciences in Cracow conference he conducted magnetic susceptibility tests. The results of the measurements were interpreted by Professor Lewandowski: Sołtmany meteorite is a chondrite type meteorite containing a small amount of magnetic minerals, with a low degree of internal deformation (not experienced a collision with another object of the interplanetary space). Therefore it appears that after the disintegration of the parent body, the earth was the first place the stone had met. Professor Karwowski had exactly the same view.

  The Meteorite has been on the Earth for two weeks and its examination and study have just begun. However, because it was found and sent to the laboratories quickly, luck was on our side.

And what about us? We found ourselves in the right place and the right time where we experienced our space adventure. And even if everything turned out to be much more complicated than we thought, in our hands we had a stone which 72 hours before was part of the universe!

More details can be found on the portal http://wiki.meteoritica.pl, led by Wadi and Woreczko, where all info and results are updated regularly.

Wadi & Jan Woreczko
(English translation: Paweł "Hijos" Wyka)