Posted on 03/08/2008 3:07:17 PM PST by blam
Astronomers Capture Rare Video Of Meteor Falling To Earth; Hunt For Meteorite
ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2008) — Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, have captured rare video of a meteor falling to Earth.
The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in Southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. Associate Professor Peter Brown, who specializes in the study of meteors and meteorites, says that Wednesday evening (March 5) at 10:59 p.m. EST these cameras captured video of a large fireball and the department has also received a number of calls and emails from people who actually saw the light.
Brown along with Wayne Edwards, a post doctorate student, hope to enlist the help of local residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have crashed in the Parry Sound area of Ontario, Canada.
"Most meteoroids burn up by the time they hit an altitude of 60 or 70 kilometres from Earth," says Edwards. "We tracked this one to an altitude of about 24 kilometres so we are pretty sure there are at least one, and possibly many meteorites, that made it to the ground."
Edwards says the lab can narrow the ground location where the meteorite would have fallen, to about 12 square kilometres and have created a map that may assist in locating the meteorite. The rock, or rocks, would probably weigh a kilogram or slightly more.
"We would love to find a recovered meteorite on this one, because we have the video and we have the data and by putting that together with the meteorite, there is a lot to be learned."
Video of meteor falling can be seen at: http://communications.uwo.ca/images/media_relations/20080306-035908-05.avi
Adapted from materials provided by University of Western Ontario.
"Wha-cha got there is a big-ol cold chunk-u-poopy."
OK, silly question. If a meteorite lands in my yard, is it mine? Am I bound by some law to let scientific investegators examine it, or take it? Can I cut it up and sell chunks of it?
Possibly rubble from the destroyed spy satellite.
I would say it’s yours.
Thanks God that not many if any Muzzies life in Parry Sound.
If you’re the owner of the land, the meteorite belongs to you under the theory of accretion.
I like the theory “It’s my backyard.”
[If a meteorite lands in my yard, is it mine? Am I bound by some law to let scientific investegators examine it, or take it? Can I cut it up and sell chunks of it?]
It’s yours.
There are no meteors here, please continue up the river
Most excellent. I’ll go wait in my back yard for something to land.
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