SUMMARY

SUMMARY

This bright nighttime bolide was observed west of Indianapolis, IN at 4:04 AM local time on 10 Dec 2024 (0904 UTC).

Imagery from five NEXRAD radars as well as the Indianapolis, IN airport radar show signatures of falling meteorites near the town of Amo, IN.

Evidence indicates that this is a relatively massive meteorite fall with many stones reaching the ground. The meteoroid followed a roughly north to south ground track, crosswind to high altitude winds blowing up to 63 m/s (~142 mph). As a result, the strewn field extends westward towards Indianapolis even though the meteor was observed moving north to south. Modeling with Jormungandr suggests the bolide had a steep infall angle.

Meteorites are seen in weather radar imagery ranging from less than 1g to 670g. Larger meteorites may have landed but these rarely appear in radar imagery as they move very quickly through the interaction volume of the slow-turning radars.

Residents south of Coatesville and east of Greencastle may have experienced rocks falling on their property, possibly causing impact damage to structures. Farther east, small meteorites rained down in large numbers and may have been heard landing on the ground and any structures present. This event is not massive enough to have caused an impact crater.

The strewn field map included here contains two sets of colored polygons. Smaller, irregularly shaped polygons are the landing sites where meteorites in individual radar signatures fell. The larger polygons are estimates of the area where all meteorites landed. The red polygon indicates where any ~10kg (22lb) meteorites landed, if any meteorites of that size landed. The polygons grade through 1kg, 100g, 10g, and 1g in a color scale ending in yellow. This strewn field map is intentionally simplified, and often times meteorites of different masses are intermixed on the ground but with a general trend from larger meteorites at one end and smaller ones at the downwind end.

Several meteorites have been recovered from this event and the first appears to have been found near Amo, IN. The name of this page has been updated as a result but the meteorite name is provisional pending acceptance by the the Meteoritical Society.