Out in Western Australia, in the Nullabor desert, there is an array of sky cameras designed to observe meteors as they flame their way through our atmosphere. It’s been observing the sky since 2006, and it paid off handsomely: a bright meteor observed by the skycam has led to the resulting meteorite being found.
Cooool. By triangulating the meteor, astronomers were able to track the rock all the way to the ground, where the meteorite was found only 100 meters from the predicted location. Not only that, the track of the meteor on the sky allowed astronomers to backtrack its trajectory, and calculate the orbit of the meteoroid. They found it came from a family of asteroids in the inner asteroid belt, just outside the orbit of Mars. over millions of years the orbit migrated inward toward the Sun, and eventually intersected ours, resulting in, well, the collision.
This is really nice because not too many meteorites are recovered from known falls, and fewer still where the orbit of the incoming rock can be determined. When this happens, we get for free what otherwise would take a fairly expensive rocket trip to accomplish.
I’ve been saying for some time that with the advent of digital cameras everywhere, we’ll be seeing this more often. In this case the cameras were designed and implemented specifically to do this, but just you wait. Some ATM or junkyard or home security camera will do the same thing. The age of public involvement in astronomy is just beginning.
Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to MeteoriteMen on Twitter.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Is there a known statistic regarding how much of the sky is being photographed at any given time?
I’d be interested to know what our moment -to-moment coverage is.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:36 am
This is an old story (with a Science paper back then) – why is it coming up again?
@Phil: “but just you wait. Some ATM or junkyard or home security camera will do the same thing” – this has actually worked in several cases already, leading e.g. to the recovery of a meteorite on Lolland, Denmark, earlier this year. Interviewing eye- and earwitnesses of the fall usually helps narrowing down the search area.
@Thomas: In different parts of the world dense networks of all-sky cameras are watching the skies whenever it’s dark, for example the European Fireball Network operating all over Germany and the Czech Republic. It had led to the discovery of three fragments of the 2002 “Neuschwanstein” meteorite.
And a similar Canadian effort led to the much-publicised recovery of several meteorites after the 25 September fireball.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:41 am
[...] und Bild der Wissenschaft) NACHTRAG: Noch ein Artikel dazu … NACHTRAG 2: … den manche für eine Neuigkeit [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 8:42 am
I keep waiting for a platinum meteorite to fall in my back yard(about a cubic meter would be good).
(at 21.45 gms/cc and $ 1350/troy ounce(31gms/ounce) that would be around $934,000,000)
Ah heck. I’ll take ANY rare earth element,,,
GAry 7
November 8th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Not that too old, Science, 17 September 2009. The meteor fall was July 2007, though.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Maybe we should network all security and ATM cameras into one huge TLWS (Too Late Warning System). I’ll look forward to all the fake sightings resulting from crack pipes flaring up in moving cars.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/11/08/meteorite-found-due-to-skycam/ [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Thanks, Dan.
I asked on UT a while back how to set up a cam like that. I’d still like to know if there’s an easier way, though.
I live in town, but my sister’s house is pretty dark – ‘cept for a single streetlight, unfortunately.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:02 am
“When this happens, we get for free what otherwise would take a fairly expensive rocket trip to accomplish. ”
I didn’t know we sent of spaceships to find out where a small rock came from. I hope it does something more than that since it’s going out there anyway.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:08 am
@ 3. Gary Ansorge Says:
I keep waiting for a platinum meteorite to fall in my back yard(about a cubic meter would be good). (at 21.45 gms/cc and $ 1350/troy ounce(31gms/ounce) that would be around $934,000,000) Ah heck. I’ll take ANY rare earth element,,,
How about plutonium?
Course, you wouldn’t want the meteorite to whack you right on the head as your sitting in your backyard waiting for it ..
November 8th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Awesome.
This reminds me of the Sudan meteorite last year. Plus the Indonesian one the other week. Seems to be happening more often lately or is it just me?
Good build up to the Leonids anyhow!
@ 6. CafeenMan Says:
“When this happens, we get for free what otherwise would take a fairly expensive rocket trip to accomplish. ”
I didn’t know we sent of spaceships to find out where a small rock came from. I hope it does something more than that since it’s going out there anyway.
We don’t. I think we’re referring here to getting samples of main belt asteroids or Near-Earth asteroids & so forth. Meteorites come to us – otherwise we’d have to go to them which does mean an expensive rocket trip.
But then you knew that really right?
@ 1. Thomas Says:
Is there a known statistic regarding how much of the sky is being photographed at any given time? I’d be interested to know what our moment -to-moment coverage is.
Well, I would imagine that would depend at what level of photographing you are asking. There are lots of amateur astronomers (& others) who will be photographing the sky even with near “point & shoot” type cameras at any given moment & gathering data on them would be well-nigh impossible.
For professional or large astronomical society observatories OTOH, we may -just conceivably – be able to come up with a figure although its still a difficult task. All too likely you’ll miss the odd one or if estimating significantly over or underestimate I’d guess.
Interesting question but.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Not to be picky, but I think you meant Nullarbor (as in “no trees”), right? Nullabor does “sound” more Australian-ish-like, though. Probably means bad-astronomy in Hollywood-Aboriginal.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am
The Casio Exilim line almost seems perfect for this kind of project, though I’m not sure they have high enough light sensitivity for most night time uses.
I suppose there are several approaches you could use from single long exposures to just shooting video. With the latter you’d get timestamps too.
What makes the Exilim cool in this kind of project are the “fly-in” and “fly-out” modes. You can set it up to monitor for motion and have it begin taking high-resolution stills whenever something flies into or out of the frame. Max rate is 60fps, but you only get one second of recording and then it takes a good minute to write them all to flash and it is useless.
So having used it to capture some shots of lightning at night, I’d say it might be doable for brighter meteors, and that a lower capture rate of maybe 5-10fps would be enough.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:37 am
That really is pretty darn cool. One of the best things about technology is that we can do all this science we couldn’t do, heck, even a decade ago. Some of the questions at Sagan Day last night were about the advances made very recently in studying extrasolar planets, and how far we might go with that in future.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’m wondering if we can look back that far to extrasolar planets – are there any hints of technology that we may observe – like sodium lighting, or pollutants in the atmosphere?
November 8th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Why is this tagged as antiscience? I’m very dissapointed. I thought that the antiscience part of your blog was about IDers, antivaxxers and other kooks, but now I have to read about ASTRONOMY? Ok, this is it, I’ve had enough. I’m stomping out of here, and I ain’t coming back. Harumph.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
For this kind of watching, city lights don’t matter. A meteor that’s big enough to have a significant fall will be bright enough to see. Here’s a website showing cameras in the North America:
http://allsky.ca/NAdatabase.html
Here’s a website with the directions to build a camera. The owner of the website is the contact for the whole Colorado network. I recently searched for some of the parts on his list and they appear to be out of stock, but you can get the idea:
http://cloudbait.com/projects/allskycamera.html
The website also mentions software that does some of the work for you.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Gary, something tells me if a chunk of platinum roughly 1 cubic metre in size were to land in your back yard, it would cause some pretty significant damage…. however, the $934 million would likely do well to cover some of those costs, assuming you weren’t home at the time!
November 8th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
First I’ve heard of this so this is very cool. Thanks BA.
The Nullabor is one mighty fine place. Big though. It is worth a drive across at least once. Stay the night in one of the roadhouse motels and take in the milky way. You’d be hard pressed to do naked eye astronomy better any where else. It is a bit of a drive though.
November 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has been running their All Sky Project for years, which encourages schools and individuals here in Colorado to do the same thing!
November 8th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
According to the article they named the rock Bunburra Rockhole. A quintessentially Australian name.
Go Ozzies! Go science! Go Ozzie science!
November 8th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Dennis, I’ve conversed with Chris Peterson at Cloudbait Observatory. My post #12 has links to the North American Allsky Network, and a link to his allsky camera design. Just awaiting moderation…
November 8th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Hello Phil,
ONE IMPORTANT QUESTION WHICH IS DRIVING ME NUTS AND MAKING NERVOUS..IS HOW REAL IS IT WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT TONIGHT IN SYFY CHANNEL ON 2012 IN WHERE SCIENTISTS ARE ACTUALLY BELIEVING 2012 AND HOW SOMETHING TERRIBLE WILL HAPPEN.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
THEY ALSO QUOTE A FORMER NASA CONSULTANT CALLED RICHARD HOAGLAND AND HE SAYS THAT 2012 WILL BE THE END AND THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS HIDING THINGS FROM US(PEOPLE). THANKS PHIL I ADMIRE YOU AND THANK YOU.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
@Scott Edelstein: Bear in mind the source of this programming. SyFy is the science *fiction* channel. I would not count this as a reputable news source. Now I will get out of the way of the others to tell you about Richard Hoaglund.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Jim Miller beat me to it. But just to expand a bit –
“Nullarbor” – from the Latin Null Arbor, meaning “no tree” (don’t worry; most Australians think it is an Aboriginal word). The Nullarbor Plain certainly is a desert, but it is not called the Nullarbor Desert.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
More titbits about the Nullarbor:
It is the world’s largest chunk of limestone.
Skylab fell there in 1979.
The limestone caves at Cocklebiddy are awesome. Almost every rock you pick up has a fossil in/on it.
At the right time of year whale watching from the Nullarbor cliffs is fantastic. Otherwise watching dolphins and seals frolicking together is fun. The cliffs are amazing. It is like the continent just stops right there (I suppose it does really).
November 8th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
@ 19. shane Says:
You’d be hard pressed to do naked eye astronomy better any where else. It is a bit of a drive though.
Good spot for doing plain *naked* (nude? naturist?) astronomy too!
@ 26 Shane :
More titbits about the Nullarbor:
Skylab fell there in 1979.
Did it? I thought that was more WA way? Over Western Australia north and west of the Nullarbour?
Not saying you’re wrong, just not where I thought.
@ 23 & 24 Scott Edelstein : Don’t worry – nothing terrible will happen in 2012 or, at least, nothing apocalyptic Mayan*-”prophecy” wise anyhow.
The BA has some good pages on the whole ’2012′ scare myth and even more on the literally in-credible (ie. not at all *credible*) Mr Hoagland. Basically, Hoagland is a whackjob and there is absolutely nothing behind the 2012 silliness. I’d advise you to type ‘Hoagland’ & ’2012′ into the search here for more.
—-
* Incidentally, the Mayan “world” has already ended when the European (specifically Spanish Empire conquistadors) came and conquered them back in the 15th century. Moreover, this was the same primitive “civilistation” that thought the Sun needed the blood of sacrificed prisoners to rise each morning. The Mayans were not exactly, shall we say, scientifically accurate in their weird & rather nasty beliefs.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Oh alright Scott Edelstein, I’ll even help you out with your 2012 research – check out these sites from here :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/05/19/2012-the-year-nothing-will-happen/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/07/15/because-2012-cant-get-any-dumber/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/28/disastrous-commercial/
There was also another really funny send-up of the ’2012′ movie trailer on the BA blog posted by the BA sometime months (?) ago but, alas, I can’t seem to find it ..
Off -topic & all I know but, hey, we are supposed to be educating folks here aren’t we?
November 9th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Since you mention other cameras – how about a nice cheap webcam attached to a low-power dedicated ARM computer. The webcam may need to be repackaged so you can use a sapphire sphere as the lens and someone would have to write the software to deal with the severe distortion on the image – but I imagine after all the development work is done you can churn these out for under $1k each. Hmm … OK – so you still have to be a fairly avid amateur.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:54 am
@ Scott Edelstein again : (Others are free to read again too, natch!
)
As for Hoagland links do try these :
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/index.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/21/hoagland-still-wrong-about-face-on-mars/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/04/12/defacing-mars/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/12/17/hoagland-lose/
& just one more for you ‘coz its funny & true :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/13/cartoon-beyond-belief/
Thanks BA!
November 9th, 2009 at 3:12 am
Speaking of nakedness and our big empty spaces, if you do take the time to cross the Nullarbor you may even find the legendary Nullarbor Nymph!
P.S Watch where you walk – look down not up. There are very big unseen holes in that limestone!
November 9th, 2009 at 7:17 am
10. Plutonium being from Pluto Says:
Unfortunately, one cubic meter of plutonium would be a hyper-critical mass. The first big nuke we built with plutonium used only about 20 kg (about the size of a soft ball). I’m pretty sure neither I nor my neighbors (Atlanta) would appreciate the side effects(Great big boom). Besides, plutonium is an unstable element. It has to be manufactured by neutron irradiation of Uranium 238 in a reactor.
18. Malcolm Says:
Yeah. I expect it would strike earths surface at several hundred miles/hr and might make a sizable crater(maybe 10 meter in diameter?). Still, my yard is a quarter acre so I’d have plenty of room for it.
Most meteors are far less dense than platinum, so are more affected by atmospheric braking. Even a regular nickel/iron meteorite a meter in diameter would make a loud landing, though damage would be restricted to a very small, direct impact zone. What the heck, I’ll take what I can get.
I’m beginning to think Hoagland was just an unemployed geek, trying to make a living off the sheeple of the world. Cynical, but it appears, effective.
Gary 7
November 9th, 2009 at 8:28 am
That is so cool!
@Dan Fischer, I watched the home security tapes of the meteor in South Western Ontario (Canada) from September 25 – but never heard more about the recovery! Can you give me a link? Thanks!
November 9th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Is it just me, or is that article really badly written and edited?
Can anyone explain what this section of the article was trying to say? Bluh…?
—
The Bunburra meteorite is about the size of a cricket ball and is an unusual type of basaltic igneous rock. Most basaltic meteorites are thought to come from one asteroid. However, the composition of Bunburra Rockhole means that it comes from a different asteroid.
This means that the process required to form this type of rock was happening in more than one place in the early solar system.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
@Peter F
Aliens play cricket?
Otherwise, most meteorites of this type come from one asteroid. This meteorite is different enough that it probably didn’t come from that asteroid. Or something.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Nearly every meterorite comes from a single asteroid?
November 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I don’t know. That’s what I interpret your quote to mean.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:30 am
@ 37. Peter F Says:
Nearly every meterorite comes from a single asteroid?
&
Also @ 38. shane Says:
I don’t know. That’s what I interpret your quote to mean.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I know a *lot* of asteroids come from particular families that are “chips off the specific asteroidal rock” so to speak but I don’t think this is true of all meteorites.
There is a wide range of types & compositions of meteorites (iron, rock, stony-iron, carbonaceous etc ..) & a large number of different asteroid families and classes so its certainly not all from only *one* rock!
See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorites_classification
Belated comment & all but hope this helps anyhow.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone else saw the meteorite that my daughter and I saw last Thursday, November 19, 2009 over north central Oklahoma? It was about 6:50 PM, and it was the biggest fireball that I have ever seen. It lasted for about 2 minutes and seemed to be moving relatively slowly. It appeared to be coming toward us, which meant it was traveling toward the east. It broke into 3 different pieces which were all still on fire. One piece appeared to hit the ground very near to where we were just after it went out.