The Meteoritical Bulletin No. 88 lists information for 1610 newly classified meteorites, comprising 753 from Antarctica, 302 from Africa, 505 from Asia (495 of which are from Oman), 40 from North America, 5 from South America, 4 from Europe, and 1 of unknown origin. Information is provided for 9 falls (Alby sur Chran, Al Zarnkh, Devgaon, Kamioka, Kendrapara, Maromandia, New Orleans, Sivas, and Villalbeto de la Peña). Noteworthy specimens include a eucrite fall (Alby sur Chéran), 6 martian meteorites, 13 lunar meteorites, and 12 irons including one weighing 3 metric tons (Dronino).

Born in Red Oak, Iowa, in 1906, Fred Lawrence Whipple earned his Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley in 1931. He immediately accepted a position at the Harvard College Observatory and remained at Harvard throughout his career. In 1950, he was appointed to the Phillips Professorship in the Department of Astronomy, and in 1955, he began serving concurrently as the Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory when it moved from Washington, D.C. to Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, Whipple established the Harvard Meteor Project in which two cameras, 26 miles apart, simultaneously photographed the same meteors, for which he invariably derived elliptical orbits indicative of their origin within the solar system. In 1950, Whipple introduced his dirty snowball model of comet nuclei, which soon became widely accepted and was fully confirmed in 1986 by close-up images of comet Halley taken by the European Space Agencys Giotto spacecraft. Keenly anticipating the orbiting of satellites during the International Geophysical Year (July 1, 1957-December 31, 1958), Whipple won contracts to build a worldwide network of telescopic cameras for satellite tracking. At least one of the cameras was ready in time to photograph the Soviet Unions Sputnik I satellite in October 1957, and all 12 stations were in operation by midsummer of 1958. For his leadership role in this project, President John Kennedy honored Fred L. Whipple in June 1963 with the Presidents Award for Distinguished Public Service. In the 1960s, Whipple collaborated with astronomers at the University of Arizona to build a new observatory on Mt. Hopkins, 40 miles south of Tucson. Two of the most innovative instruments installed there for astrophysical research were the worlds largest gamma-ray detector and the Multiple-Mirror Telescope. In 1982, the Mt. Hopkins Observatory was rededicated as the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. Although he retired in 1973, Whipple was present at the dedication and until 2003, he continued to actively participate in research projects. At present, he is anticipating the return of the Stardust mission to comet Wild 2, which will bring back to Earth samples of the comet and of interstellar dust. It is scheduled to arrive in 2006, the year of Fred Whipples 100th birthday. Among his many honors, Fred Whipple received the Leonard Medal from the Meteoritical Society in 1970 at its meeting hosted by the Goddard Space Flight Center, in Skyland, Virginia.

In the Saint Aubin octahedrite, chromite crystals of up to 3 cm occur enclosed in the metal phase. They are twinned along [111] according to the spinel law and display pseudohexagonal shapes in cross-sections. The crystals are homogeneous and exhibit compositions close to pure chromite endmember. Vanadium is the only additional element observed in appreciable amounts of up to 0.73 wt%. Chromite in the Saint Aubin meteorite crystallized from liquids with very low amounts of Cr and O close to the Fe-FeS join as indicated by its composition and phase relations. The growth of large chromite crystals implies stable supersaturated conditions for a long period in the meteorite parent body of Saint Aubin.

Only several artifacts made of meteoritic iron have been found throughout the world. The number of these artifacts is still overstated and has never been verified because museums do not allow specialists to test these objects. Until now, a few objects made of meteoritic iron were discovered in Poland. An axe from Wietrzno-Bobrka and bracelets from Czȩstochowa-Raków are listed as Polish meteorites--the latter ones as Czȩstochowa-Raków I and Czȩstochowa-Raków II. In my opinion, a special meteoritic category should be created for artifacts made of meteorites: meteoritic antiques or manmade artifacts of meteorites and tektite glass. Within such a category, further categorization could be made, based on the material a given meteorite is made of.

An extremely bright fireball was seen for over 250 km near the eastern coast of India in the evening sky on September 27, 2003. In a rare observation, the fireball was seen by two airline pilots, providing direction of the trail with reasonable accuracy, consistent with ground-based observations. A few fragments of the meteorite were subsequently recovered along the end of the trail in different parts of Kendrapara district (20 degrees 30' N; 86 degrees 26' E) of Orissa. Based on petrography and chemical composition, the meteorite is classified as H5 chondrite. The cosmogenic radionuclides 54Mn, 22Na, 60Co, and 26Al and tracks have been studied in this stony meteorite. Two of the fragments show an unusually high activity of 60Co (~160 dpm/kg) indicating a meteoroid radius of 50-150 cm. Assuming that less than 10% (by weight) of the fragments could be recovered because of difficult terrain, an atmospheric mass ablation of >95% is estimated. Based on the observations of the trail and the estimated mass ablation, orbital parameters of the meteoroid have been calculated. The aphelion is found to lie in the asteroidal belt (1.8-2.4 AU), but the inclination of the orbit is large (22-26 degrees) with respect to the ecliptic. Noble gases have been analysed in two samples of this meteorite. He and Ne are dominantly cosmogenic. Using production rates based on the sample depth derived from 60Co content, 21Ne-based exposure age of 4.50 +/- 0.45 Ma is derived for Kendrapara. One of the samples, known to be more deeply shielded based on high 60Co activity, shows the presence of 80Kr, 82Kr, and 128Xe produced by (n, gamma) reaction on 79Br, 81Br, and 127I, respectively. The (80Kr/82Kr)n ratio of 3.5 +/- 0.9 is consistent with neutrons being mostly thermal. Trapped 84Kr and 132Xe are in the expected range for metamorphic grade H5.