Good morning EUROAVIAns,
in today’s Fact Friday we talk about #meteorite: on March 15th, a meteorite fell in Temennotte, Molise. Yes, you read right, it may seem absurd but it’s the truth.
The rock weighs approximately 1 kilogram and it is about the size of a fist. It is of great interest to the National Institute of Astrophysics, which has alerted the population that it could join scientists to find the celestial body. The research will continue in the next few days, with the hope of finding the fragments of the meteorite or perhaps the entire body. Even a little piece of it can contribute to increase the knowledge on the origins of our planet and the solar system.
Researchers have calculated the fall trajectory and the area in which the meteorite could be sighted. Through various images, it was possible to reconstruct that the so-called meteoroid, with an estimated mass of about 3 kilos, hit the atmosphere and arrived almost orthogonally to the Earth’s surface with only a 6 ° angle variation from the vertical axis. Upon entering the atmosphere, it began to heat up and generated a sphere of plasma around itself, which began to glow in the dark of night, generating the fireball. Afterward, it travelled through the atmosphere and slowed down to a speed just over 2.8 km/s. From the brightness of the fireball detected by cameras there were no flares, meaning no increases in brightness. This indicates that the meteoroid had been consumed progressively, without having suffered significant fragmentation processes. The overall duration of the fireball phase was 5.3 seconds, then the dark flight phase began. From the calculations it appears that, at the time of fireball extinction, the residual mass of the meteoroid was still approximately 1 kilogram. Finally, it was hit by a strong wind coming from the north-west, which caused it to deviate significantly from its original trajectory and that is the reason why it fell in the area of Temennotte.
So, experts asked the population to report any rock covered with a very dark patina with rounded edges. In conclusion, whoever finds the meteorite, after scientific analysis, will be able to take it back as a space ornament!