A fireball a few days ago lit up the skies in regions as far apart as the United Kingdom to the … [+]
UK Meteor Network
The hunt is underway for possible pieces of space rock in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom – but local authorities are urging people not to hunt far from their homes on due to persistent coronavirus restrictions.
And no, this new space rock exploration has nothing to do with Apophis’ “god of chaos” which will happen safely later today (Friday, March 5); instead, much less rock is the cause of all the problems.
Meteor enthusiasts would typically roam the country looking for fragments of the fireball, which broke up high in the atmosphere late Sunday (February 28). Local observers say there is a high probability that some small pieces have made it to the ground safely, but they say any investigations must adhere to a quarantine protocol.
Nevertheless, the UK Meteor Network has been urging residents anywhere northeast of Gloucester to keep an eye out for new rocks, and tweeting advice on what to do next. it should be done. “Did you find a dark dark rock on the ground? It could be a #meteorite! Please mark a location, take a photograph and send them to us, ”he said tweet earlier this week.
“Dr. Katherine Joy from the University of Manchester says you’d better take a picture of it, note where GPS is, don’t touch a magnet or your hands, ” network added in another tweet. “Pick it up in a clean plastic bag or clean aluminum foil if possible.”
This is the approximate area where fragments of meteorite may have fallen, in the northeastern region. … [+]
UK Meteor Network / Google Earth
Meteor scenes are a common sight on Earth as tiny pieces of space rock enter the atmosphere and burn up. Situations where meteors survive the hard journey and fall to Earth are far rarer, but those spacefalls that land are called meteorites.
Meteorites provide important evidence for scientists about how our solar system was formed, as fragments of rocks have been floating around our solar system for billions of years, even before the planets came together. These studies are also a good addition to the ongoing sample return missions from the Ryugu (performed by Japan last year) and Bennu asteroids (occurring under NASA’s 2023 view).
About 55 tonnes of material from space enters Earth every year, according to a report from the Guardian, but there has been a huge thirst since anyone in the UK found a fallen meteorite. The last fall was in 1991 from a town called Glatton, near Peterborough.
Rocks are difficult to find in typical rural settings as they tend to blend in with the surrounding landscape, which is why researchers (at times unscathed) ) trying to reach places like Antarctica from time to time to find dark meteorites in the surrounding white ice.