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Meteor Fireball Over Western Germany Damages Roofs; Fragment Recovered in Koblenz

ESA and German research teams are reconstructing the trajectory of a rare meter‑scale object that lit skies across several countries.

Overview

  • A bright fireball crossed western Germany around 19:00 on March 8, drawing thousands of reports and videos from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
  • In Koblenz‑Güls, a largely ablated fragment punched a football‑sized hole through a house roof and into a bedroom, with no injuries reported.
  • Police logged additional roof damage reports from parts of Rhineland‑Palatinate including the Hunsrück and the Eifel, while authorities stressed there is no ongoing danger.
  • Emergency lines saw heavy call volumes and large searches were launched in places such as Stade, but those operations did not find debris.
  • Officials say a small centimetre‑scale piece was recovered in Koblenz as ESA, DLR and KIT analyze recordings and seismic data; experts estimate the meteoroid at roughly one to a few meters and urge citizens not to handle possible finds but to contact authorities.