A Curtin University project entitled the Desert Fireball Network (DFN)
uses an array of digital cameras in the outback deserts of Australia to
detect and track meteors.
The results from the various cameras can then be combined to triangulate
where the meteorite had landed.
The team has announced they have successfully recovered a 1.7kg
meteorite from the dry bed of Lake Eyre, their first successful result.
ABC reports -
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Originally Posted by Laura Gartry, ABC
The meteorite is the first result of a new observation network of 32 remote cameras across WA and South Australia.
Called the Desert Fireball Network, the cameras helped to narrow the search area to a 500 metre line.
Mechatronic engineer Jonathan Paxman said the fall site of the meteorite was very difficult to access, being more than six kilometres from a remote part of the lake's edge, and with the surface quite soft in places due to recent rainfall.
"The fact we have managed to retrieve the meteorite at all is remarkable," Dr Paxman said.
Professor Bland said the meteorite was thought to be a chondrite or stony meteorite, providing an example of material created during the early formation of the solar system more than 4.5-billion-years ago.
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More importantly, because the team have the images of the meteor from
the various cameras that detected its flash, they can get a good fix on
its original orbit and hence its origins.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Desert Fireball Network, Curtin University
Meteorites contain a record of the formation and evolution of the Solar System, but they’re a random sample set – we have no context information to aid us in interpreting that record. The Desert Fireball Network is designed to provide that context. With autonomous observatories across the Australian Outback we can triangulate the trajectory of fireballs in the atmosphere, which allows us to derive fall positions for the meteorites, to enable later recovery by field parties, and orbital information that relates meteorites to their starting location within the Solar System.
Currently, the network stands at 32 fireball observatories. Each one is a fully autonomous intelligent imaging system, capable of operating for 12 months without maintenance, and storing all imagery collected over that period. When complete, ~70 stations will observe the sky across ~1/3 of Australia. We are also extending coverage to other continents. In addition to fireballs, our imagery data contains re-entering space debris, and energetic stellar events.
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Story and video on ABC here -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-0...y-team/7071952
Fireballs In The Sky web site here -
http://fireballsinthesky.com.au/
Report a fireball here by downloading the reporting app or by reporting the
sighting on the web -
http://fireballsinthesky.com.au/report-a-fireball/
Interested in doing a PhD with the Desert Fireball Network? -
http://fireballsinthesky.com.au/meet-team/
Desert Fireball Network recovers recently monitored meteorite from Lake Eyre
