Roper Mountain Astronomers

Vienna Museum of Natural History - Meteorite Collection

For our September 2020 Club Meeting (embedded below), we were thrilled to welcome Mag. Dr. Ludovic Ferrière as our featured speaker, via Zoom. Dr. Ferrière, staff scientist, is curator of the meteorite collection and impactite collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien in Vienna, Austria. We would like to share some of the valuable information provided to us, including ways you can participate and help!

Pictured below, Hall 5 contains approximately 1100 meteorites, including those from Mars and the Moon. Meteorite Hall is the world's largest and oldest meteorite exhibit! Photo Credit: Kurt Kracher-NHMVienna

Officially opened in 1889, the museum was constructed over a period of 10 years. Meteorite samples date back as far as the 15th century. Photo Credit: © Bwag/Wikimedia

You can do Citizen Science! Hunt for possible impact craters from your home:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/06/07/how-to-discover-your-own-massive-meteorite-crater-and-still-work-from-home/#64aad2a926ca

Direct Link to the Vigie-Cratère site:

https://www.vigie-cratere.org/

About Dr. Ferrière's Expedition to the DR Congo:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/3/110308-meteor-impact-crater-found-confirmed-congo-ferriere-science/

How watch for meteors (Includes links to see and hear meteors live!)

https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en/research/mineralogy__petrography/meteor

Donations to Dr. Ferrière are welcomed and encouraged!

About  Dr. Ludovic Ferrière

Born in France in 1982, Dr. Ludovic Ferrière developed an early interest in rocks and minerals. At the University of Tours (France), his passion for meteorite impact cratering was really born, so he spent a year at the University Laval (Quebec, Canada) to study geology and explore nearby craters during his spare time. Returning to France he did a one-year course on Planetology at the University of Nantes. During summer 2004 he traversed Canada from east to west, stopping at several impact sites on the way. Then, he completed a Master in Planetology at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris (France), and learnt about meteorites at the Museum of Natural History. He finally completed his PhD thesis in Vienna (Austria) in 2009, on the geological and geochemical aspects of impactites from the Bosumtwi crater (Ghana), before to move again to Canada for his postdoctoral researches on shatter cones and associated shock-induced microdeformations in minerals (at the University of Western Ontario, London).

Currently, Dr. Ludovic Ferrière is chief curator of the prestigious meteorite collection and of the impactite collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Austria). Dr. Ferrière has so far confirmed, together with colleagues, four meteorite impact craters (i.e., Keurusselkä in Finland, Luizi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hummeln in Sweden, and Yallalie in Australia) and has also discovered and classified a number of meteorites (in Egypt and in Uruguay). He is author and co-author of about 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers published in international journals, over 200 abstracts presented at international conferences, and of a book on meteorites [see also: www.meteorimpactonearth.com ].

https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en/ludovic_ferriere

Photo Credit (Left): Chiara Cordeschi. Photos used with permission.