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PARIS, March 6 – Space fans in France are being urged to come together to find an apricot-sized meteorite that crashed to Earth last weekend in the country’s southwest.
The rock, which is supposed to weigh 150 grams (just over five ounces), was caught falling through the atmosphere with cameras at an astronomy education facility in Mauraux falling at just 10.43pm. Saturday near Aiguillon, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Bordeaux.
The site is part of the Vigie-Ciel (Sky Watch) project which has around 100 cameras in the Fire Retrieval and Interception Observation Network (FRIPON), aimed at the 10 or so find meteorites that fall on France every year.
“Meteorites are memories of the creation of the solar system, with the advantage that they will never be exposed to the elements,” said Mickael Wilmart of the astronomical education association A Ciel Ouvert (Open Sky) visual Mauraux.
“A new meteorite like this, which collapsed just a few days ago, has not been altered by the Earth’s environment so information is valuable to scientists,” he said.
The investigation is already underway but calls for help have been posted on social media, and posters have been put up in areas where the rock is most likely to fall.
But Wilmart acknowledged the chances of success are slim.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said.
“We’re really counting on people looking in their gardens, or at the side of the road, maybe they’re just falling for this badly sought after rock. , ”He said. – ETX Studios