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Nullarbor fireball cameras find rare meteorite
September 18, 2009Using cameras which capture fireballs streaking across the night sky and sophisticated mathematics, a world-wide team of scientists have managed to find not only a tiny meteorite on the vast Nullarbor Plain, but also its orbit and the asteroid it came from.
The research team, including CSIRO scientist Dr Rob Hough, was led by Professor Phil Bland of Imperial College London.
The remarkable "detective" work was detailed in a paper published in Science on September 18, 2009.
Meteorites discovered with known orbits are incredibly rare, so the achievement is a remarkable breakthrough in planetary science.
The ability to track meteorites back to their asteroid home also means it is an incredibly cheap way of sampling that asteroid, rather than conducting an expensive space mission.
To find the meteorite, the team deployed three 'all sky cameras' on the Nullarbor Plain to form a fireball camera network.
The cameras take a single time lapse picture of the sky throughout the entire night to record any fireballs over the Plain.
Combined with some clever mathematics, researchers were then able to calculate the original orbit of the object and where to search for the meteorite on the ground.
CSIRO Exploration & Mining scientist and co-author of the paper Dr Rob Hough said the search for the meteorite was helped by the fact the Nullarbor Plain is marked by white limestone rocks.
"So a dark meteorite on the white surface is easier to find, however it's very tiny, so the discovery is still really quite amazing," Dr Hough said.
"This particular meteorite is also very interesting because of its rarity. It is an achondrite - a basalt - with a composition that suggest an asteroid from the inner asteroid belt."
Dr Hough said the 'all sky camera' network had been an extremely successful project and had spotted many fireballs.
"The Plain is a very difficult place to have technology like the cameras and the fieldwork to find the meteorite is not trivial," he said.
"The logistics are a really important aspect of a project like this and it takes a lot of planning to make it work."
The Science paper describes the first find of a meteorite from the camera network.
Western Australia Chief Scientist Professor Lyn Beazley described it as an extremely exciting finding, which will help us understand the evolution of the solar system.
"It will complement Western Australia's radio astronomy research and, in particular, Australia's commitment to the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, " Professor Beazley said.
"This also represents an extraordinary collaborative effort between CSIRO, the Western Australian Museum and academics from the UK and takes advantage of the unique features of Western Australia, which allows the tracking, locating and collecting of rare meteorite material."
CSIRO Australia
Meteorites discovered with known orbits are incredibly rare, so the achievement is a remarkable breakthrough in planetary science.
The ability to track meteorites back to their asteroid home also means it is an incredibly cheap way of sampling that asteroid, rather than conducting an expensive space mission.
To find the meteorite, the team deployed three 'all sky cameras' on the Nullarbor Plain to form a fireball camera network.
The cameras take a single time lapse picture of the sky throughout the entire night to record any fireballs over the Plain.
Combined with some clever mathematics, researchers were then able to calculate the original orbit of the object and where to search for the meteorite on the ground.
CSIRO Exploration & Mining scientist and co-author of the paper Dr Rob Hough said the search for the meteorite was helped by the fact the Nullarbor Plain is marked by white limestone rocks.
"So a dark meteorite on the white surface is easier to find, however it's very tiny, so the discovery is still really quite amazing," Dr Hough said.
"This particular meteorite is also very interesting because of its rarity. It is an achondrite - a basalt - with a composition that suggest an asteroid from the inner asteroid belt."
Dr Hough said the 'all sky camera' network had been an extremely successful project and had spotted many fireballs.
"The Plain is a very difficult place to have technology like the cameras and the fieldwork to find the meteorite is not trivial," he said.
"The logistics are a really important aspect of a project like this and it takes a lot of planning to make it work."
The Science paper describes the first find of a meteorite from the camera network.
Western Australia Chief Scientist Professor Lyn Beazley described it as an extremely exciting finding, which will help us understand the evolution of the solar system.
"It will complement Western Australia's radio astronomy research and, in particular, Australia's commitment to the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, " Professor Beazley said.
"This also represents an extraordinary collaborative effort between CSIRO, the Western Australian Museum and academics from the UK and takes advantage of the unique features of Western Australia, which allows the tracking, locating and collecting of rare meteorite material."
CSIRO Australia
Meteorite Current Events and Meteorite News RSSMeteorite from September 25 fireball event recovered and presented
When Tony Garchinski heard a loud crash just after 9 p.m. on Friday, September 25 he didn't think much of it. That is, until he awoke the next morning to find the windshield of his mom's Nissan Pathfinder with a huge crack in it. Making note of the 'unusual' rocks he later found on the car's hood, Garchinski chalked the incident up to vandalism and filed a police report.
Western astronomers capture spectacular meteor footage and images
Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario have released footage of a meteor that was approximately 100 times brighter than a full moon. The meteor lit up the skies of southern Ontario two weeks ago and Western astronomers are now hoping to enlist the help of local residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have crashed in the area of Grimsby, Ontario.
NASA Researchers Make First Discovery of Life's Building Block in Comet
NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
Surface features on Titan form like Earth's, but with a frigid twist
"It is really surprising how closely Titan's surface resembles Earth's," says Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who is presenting the results on Friday, 7 August.
Extraterrestrial platinum was 'stirred' into the Earth
Report author CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship researcher Dr Stephen Barnes said the study group collected a large body of data on the platinum content of lava flows called komatiites, which host some of the world's major nickel deposits.
Apollo 11 moon rocks still crucial 40 years later, say WUSTL researchers
A lunar geochemist at Washington University in St. Louis says that there are still many answers to be gleaned from the moon rocks collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic moonwalk 40 years ago July 20.
Meteorite grains divulge Earth's cosmic roots
The interstellar stuff that became incorporated into the planets and life on Earth has younger cosmic roots than theories predict.
Meteorite bombardment may have made Earth more habitable, says study
Large bombardments of meteorites approximately four billion years ago could have helped to make the early Earth and Mars more habitable for life by modifying their atmospheres.
Princeton geoscientist offers new evidence that meteorite did not wipe out dinosaurs
A Princeton University geoscientist who has stirred controversy with her studies challenging a popular theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs has compiled powerful new evidence asserting her position.
Solar wind tans young asteroids
A new study published in Nature this week reveals that asteroid surfaces age and redden much faster than previously thought -- in less than a million years, the blink of an eye for an asteroid. This study has finally confirmed that the solar wind is the most likely cause of very rapid space weathering in asteroids. This fundamental result will help astronomers relate the appearance of an asteroid to its actual history and identify any after effects of a catastrophic impact with another asteroid.
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