Potential meteorite fall near Cheltenham

[Rick]

Potential meteorite fall near Cheltenham

Last night's spectacular yellow-green fireball was caused by a piece of a asteroid entering the earth's atmosphere, according to scientists from the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll). The fireball or meteor sent a sonic boom across southern England and is set to break the world's record as the most-reported-ever meteor on the International Meteor Organisation's website with 758 reports so far.  Seen at 9:54pm on Sunday night, it was observed from as far away as Ireland and the Netherlands and recorded on at least six specialised UKFAll fireball cameras.

More: https://britastro.org/node/25728

[Rick]

Meteorites may be just north of Cheltenham

The hunt is on for meteorite fragments that are likely to have fallen to Earth over England on Sunday night.

Many people across Northern Europe saw a fireball in the sky shortly before 22:00 GMT, and the streak of light was also caught on special cameras.

Scientists think some pieces will have survived the intense heat of atmospheric entry and hit the ground.

More: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56241511

[Rick]

...and another similar story...

Astronomically hard: French stargazers hunt for meteorite the size of apricot

France's ranks of amateur astronomers have been urged to help find an apricot-size meteorite that fell to Earth last weekend in the south-west of the country.

The rock, estimated to weigh 150 grams (just over five ounces), was captured plunging through the atmosphere by cameras at an astronomy education facility in Mauraux, and landed at exactly 10.43pm on Saturday near Aiguillon, about 100km (62 miles) from Bordeaux.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/05/france-meteorite-search-apricot

[Rick]

Gloucestershire meteorite is first UK find in 30 years

Several rocky fragments have been recovered from the fireball that lit up the sky above southern England just over a week ago.

They came down in the Winchcombe area of Gloucestershire.

A householder first alerted experts after noticing a pile of charred stone on his driveway. Other members of the public have since come forward with their own finds.

It's 30 years since meteorite material was last retrieved in the UK.

More: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56326246

[Rick]

Ending 30 Years of Hurt: The Winchcombe Meteorite Fall

Meteorite hunting is a lot like football (soccer) ... just run with us on this. Success requires skill, a cracking team, a whole lot of luck ... and, historically, England (and the UK) are not very good at it ... we were just unlucky ... the (fire)ball always seems to miss the goal! Meanwhile, around the world, meteorite fall recoveries are becoming more and more frequent; but in the UK, to put it in the style of the famous English football anthem by the band the Lightning Seeds, it's been "30 years of hurt" since our last meteorite fall. The Glatton meteorite of 1991 that landed in Arthur Pettifor's back garden, as he was tending to his onions, was the last time the UK has tasted the success of recovering a meteorite fall (Meteoritical Bulletin Database – Glatton). However, based on data from the France-based Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON), calculations suggest that approximately three meteorites of over 100 g should fall on the UK each year (Colas et al. 2020), so right now the UK is batting way below its average (yes, we know that's cricket not soccer).

Recovering meteorites that have been seen to fall is incredibly important for planetary science as we seek to understand how our Solar System formed and evolved. Even better is when the fireball (the bright light trail left behind as the rock passes through Earth's atmosphere) is caught on camera. This has two important results: firstly, these images allow us to triangulate where the meteorite landed and quickly get boots on the ground to search for any visiting space rocks before they get contaminated by Earth's environment; secondly, it provides key geological context to our meteorite collection by enabling us to link these special rocks back to their source region in space and, potentially, their parent asteroid (Devillepoix et al. 2020; Jenniskens 2020). The more images of the fireball we get, from as many locations as possible, the better our triangulation will be.

More: http://elementsmagazine.org/2021/10/01/ending-30-years-of-hurt-the-winchcombe-meteorite-fall/

[MarkH]

I was in my  late teens walking  between  Otford and  Shoreham when I  spotted something  near the  path that  looked  unusual.  I picked it up  and my first  conclusion was that it was a  meteorite.  I kept it for  years. Then in my thirties  a "so called" geologist  moved  in four  doors  away. I enthusiastically  showed  him  my treasured find......." no no no that's  not a meteorite " he said, I asked  what  it was but he couldn't  tell  me, only that  it wasn't a  meteorite.  So I  threw it  away,  who was I to  doubt  a qualified  geologist.  Fast forward  to 2013 I went to Cape Canaveral  to meet  apollo  astronaut Jack Lousma ( famed capcom when apollo 13 commander  Jim Lovell reported "Houston  we have a  problem ") and to witness a launch of an atlas iv. There in the  KSC shop almost  identical  my  meteorite !!!!  It made me realise people  who  brandish  qualifications don't  necessarily  know  it all. Oh well you  live and learn.

[Rick]

There are places it's quite easy to find meteorites. Certain very dry but ice-covered parts of Antarctica spring to mind. (So does the surface of Mars, where the various rovers have stumbled upon a few.) On most of the Earth, however, weathering soon takes its toll, especially with the more fragile bits of space rock like the Winchcombe carbonaceous chondrite, and positive identification is certainly something for the experts (and quite likely also involving a microscope or similar). Apart from a few locations (like Antarctica and certain very dry desert areas elsewhere) the chances of finding one are pretty slim, which is where the various meteor monitoring programmes come in. Your chances of finding one are greatly increased if it has fallen very recently, and you know roughly where to go looking. Even with the fairly intensive search mounted for it, I'd guess some fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite weren't found, and will by now have mostly degraded into the environment.