The yellow-green fireball that pierced the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday night, delighting observers from the UK to the Netherlands, is believed to have partially survived the trip in the form of meteorites, possibly landing just north of Cheltenham. Check out the blog of Ali Sami Farooq and also watch this in video to know more.
Fireballs are particularly bright meteors: space matter that burns when it enters the Earth's atmosphere. All that's left when it reaches the Earth's surface is known as a meteorite. They are of particular interest to scientists as they can offer crucial clues to the history of the solar system.
Richard Kacerek, founder of the British meteor network, a group of amateur astronomers who have been using cameras to record sightings across the UK since 2012, said computer modelling suggests the likely site of the meteorite's impact was just north of the Gloucestershire city.
About 50 tons of extraterrestrial material enters the Earth's atmosphere each year, mainly in the form of sand particles called space dust. In the UK, it is estimated that around 20 meteorites, the size of a sugar cube, land each year. The last recovered meteorite fall was in 1991 in the village of Glatton near Peterborough.
Brighter fireballs have been spotted in the past, Kacerek said. "What makes this particular fireball really special is that we think something actually survived."
Ashley King, of the Natural History Museum in London, said in a statement: "Video recordings tell us that its speed was around 30,000mph, which is too fast to be man-made 'space junk', so it's not an old rocket or satellite.
"The videos also allowed us to reconstruct its original orbit around the sun. In this case, the orbit was like that of an asteroid. This particular piece of asteroid has spent most of its orbit between Mars and Jupiter, although it has sometimes approached the Sun more than Earth.
~ Ali Sami Farooq
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