[meteorite-list] Visitors From Outer Space

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:35 2004
Message-ID: <200310241905.MAA08140_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s973813.htm

Visitors from outer space
Irene Montefiore
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
October 24, 2003

Have you ever looked up to the night sky, seen a blazing
object appear coming earthwards, and wondered where it
came from? A new project will try and give you some
answers.

Dr. Phillip Bland is a researcher with
the Royal School of Mines at Imperial
College in London. He is in charge of a
project with the aim of finding out
the specific origin of the many meteorites that fall to earth.

"Meteorite scientists are like regular geologists in a way,"
Phillip says slightly apologetic, "So you try and analyse the
rock and work out its history and how it came to be.

"Meteorites are great because they tell us about the very
early years of the solar system and how planets are put
together." Phillip further paints the picture as being "Kinda
like working out the geology of WA after someone's dumped
a random load of rocks in your backyard."

The main tool is an astronomical camera. "(It) looks at the
sky and looks at meteorite fireballs coming through the
atmosphere. The idea is (that) if we get a few of these
cameras out there, then we can work out what its orbit was
before it hit our atmosphere, and where it lands on the
surface. Maybe we can even say which asteroid it came
from."

As Phillip points out, the only problem with meteorites is that
"You can't really predict where they're going to come in or
what time. You just have to let the (camera) go. The camera
senses when the sky is clear and then opens up and starts an
exposure, we just collect all that film and process it and if
we've got a good fireball then that was a good night."

And that is the very reason why the research team have
made a bee-line for the Goldfields. "You have such beautiful
night skies," he rightly notes.

For now, the exact locations of the cameras are hush-hush
but Phillip promises that once everything is up and running
people will be able to go and see how the whole thing works.
It could even be an extra tourist attraction for the region.

But, most of all, Phillip hopes it attracts the odd meteorite or
two or three. "There have been camera networks running for
about 50 years and they've only found four meteorites,"
Phillip laments. But he is confident that the Goldfields and
the Nullarbor will bring him many sightings.
Received on Fri 24 Oct 2003 03:05:42 PM PDT