A comprehensive study of distribution laws for the fragments of Košice meteorite

In this study, we conduct a detailed analysis of the Kosice meteoritefall (February 28, 2010), to derive a reliable law describing the mass distribution among the recovered fragments. In total, 218 fragmentsof the Kosice meteorite, with a total mass of 11.285 kg, were analyzed. BimodalWeibull, bimodalGrady, and bimodallognormal distributions are found to be the most appropriate for describing the Kosice fragmentation process. Based on the assumption of bimodallognormal, bimodalGrady, bimodalsequential, and bimodalWeibull fragmentationdistributions, we suggest that, prior to further extensive fragmentationin the lower atmosphere, the Kosice meteoroidwas initially represented by two independent pieces with cumulative residual masses of approximately 2 and 9 kg, respectively. The smaller piece produced about 2 kg of multiple lightweight meteorite fragmentswith the mean around 12 g. The larger one resulted in 9 kg of meteorite fragments, recovered on the ground, including the two heaviest pieces of 2.374 kg and 2.167 kg with the mean around 140 g. Based on our investigations, we conclude that two to three larger fragmentsof 500–1000 g each should exist, but were either not recovered or not reported by illegal meteoritehunters.