Meteorite

Solar Power Detects Meteorite

Solar power has aided the discovery of a meteorite in the outback of South Australia. On November 27th 2015 at approximately 9.15pm a meteorite estimated to be 80kgs entered the Earth’s atmosphere travelling at about 50 000km/hr.

Most items that enter our atmosphere disintegrate into almost nothing but this one left a 1.6kg piece that was embedded in the middle of the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre South in South Australia. Thanks to researchers, 4 Desert Fireball Network camera stations and solar power,  scientists were able to narrow down the landing site and actually dig up the 1,6kg remnant.

Find the Meteorite

Desert Fireball Network cameras take pictures every 30seconds overnight and processed in the mornings. Video is also recorded for review in the mornings – if not fireballs are observed the video is deleted. Remote sites rely on a few solar panels connected to a deep cycle battery for operation – this is used even where mains access is available.

“At remote sites, solar power has been more reliable than mains, as brief power cuts are not uncommon in the outback, and these result in system re-boots,” according to findings presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last year.

The Desert Fireball Network is a part of Fireballs in the Sky; a Curtin University project and an Inspiring Australia initiative, supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Industry.