For our next meeting of 2025, we are really please to have a good friend of the society back with us to give a talk. Dr. Mike Simms from the National Museums Northern Ireland will be giving us a talk titled ‘The Winchcombe Meteorite Fall of 2021: My part in its downfall’. This meeting will take place in Ballyclare High School Lecture Theatre on Monday 3rd March 2025, starting at 8pm sharp.
About the talk: On February 28th 2021 a brilliant fireball streaked across a clear night sky. Witnessed by more than 1000 people, and many cameras, predictions were made about where meteorites might have landed. They proved to be broadly correct and over the ensuing weeks more than 600g of a very rare Carbonaceous Chondrite were recovered. It was the first meteorite recovered in the UK for 30 years, and the very first CC meteorite, but it proved to be a special meteorite for personal reasons too. This is my account of a week spent meteorite hunting, and why this meteorite is important.
About Mike: Mike is Senior Curator of Natural Sciences and has overall responsibility for the natural sciences collections. When Dippy the Dinosaur visted Belfast, Mike guided vistors to see him and explain all about the famous dinosaur. Mike’s responsiblities in his role also extend to geology and meterorites. He has an extensive personal meterorite collection and also discovered the first meteorite crater in the UK. In fact it’s one of the largest in the world!
So with such a wide range of knowledge in his field, this is definitely going to be a talk not to be missed.
Looking forward to welcome Mike back to the NIAAS and seeing you all at this meeting. As usual, refreshments and good chat will be available after the meeting!
