Campo del Cielo iron meteorite: Sample shielding and meteoroid's preatmospheric size

Abstract

Long-lived cosmogenic radioisotopes, 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, 41Ca and 59Ni, have been measured in five samples from the Campo del Cielo iron meteorite by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The 36Cl activities were significantly above the background. For the concentrations of the other four radioisotopes, only upper limits were obtained that were, however, consistent with the 36Cl result. The measured 36Cl activity allowed an estimate of the meteoroid's preatmospheric size: a radius larger than 300 cm and a mass of at least 840 000 kg. We conclude that this meteorite might be one of the largest meteorites to have been recovered.