The NASA All-sky Fireball Network identifies meteorites to protect spacecraft from collisions
between 100 and 600 tonnes of rock hurtles into Earth’s atmosphere. The reason so little of this bombardment makes it to the planet’s surface is that much of it is burnt up by atmospheric friction, which creates the fireball that is the visible sign of a meteor’s arrival. As for the bits that do get through, once landed, they are known as meteorites.
The digital cameras take back-to-back photographs, with 35 second exposures, from dusk to dawn. Fish-eye lenses allow a single exposure to cover the whole sky immediately above each camera. If more than one camera sees the same fireball—which is usually the case—that meteor’s course can be triangulated, with a precision of about ten metres, by comparing the images. This yields two valuable pieces of information.
has been a success. It has produced, Dr Bland says, a big data set “of gorgeous orbits” for incoming rocks. The number of meteorites believed to have landed has overwhelmed the team’s resources. They have recovered stones from four falls, but are in need of adventuresome volunteers to mount expeditions into the outback to gather the remains of more than 30 others.All-sky Fireball Network, run by America’s space agency, operates 18 cameras across the United States.
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