Help find a meteorite?
Meteor entering the Earths Atmosphere over Italy in the Dolomites, 2017. More information, here
The things that impacted Earth on this event is approximated to have been just 10-40 cm in size, prior to it got in the atmosphere. The observed fireball flew in a south to north direction, west of the German city of Cloppenburg and heading towards the nearby city of Friesoythe.
It is possible that a person, or even numerous small pieces endured the journey through our protective environment and reached the ground as meteorites. Such meteorites however will be simply a few grams in mass and challenging to find.
On 18 January 2020 at 16:44 UTC (17:44 local time), two fireball cams in ESAs FRIPON cam network spotted a stream of light in the skies above northwestern Germany. The trajectory of the ball of fire suggests a little meteorite could have landed in the area of Oldenburg
Fireballs are caused as small asteroids strike Earths atmosphere, entirely or nearly completely burning up due to friction, and appearing in the sky brighter than the planet Venus.
The fireball streams across top-left of the image, taken by a FRIPON electronic camera at the University of Oldenburg.
Were you in the region?
#Fireball spotted over northwestern Germany!☄️
On 18 Jan at 16:44 UTC (17:44 local time), two cameras in the #FRIPON network spotted a ball of fire streaming through the sky
🌍: @googleearth
🔭#PlanetaryDefence pic.twitter.com/ZdwMye0LBB— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) January 23, 2020
Inspect out the path the fireball took, as observed from Earth. Data originates from Francois Colas of the FRIPON network
If you found the event, you can report it straight to the International Meteor Organization using the type available at vsw.imo.net, or send out an email to the space environment group at the University of Oldenburg, by means of bjö[email protected] or [email protected]. If you think you have discovered a meteorite, Björn and Gerhard would likewise love to hear about it!), (.
FRIPON fireball network
Finding NEMO
The detection and analysis of fireball events like this is also part of the NEMO (NEar real-time effect MOnitoring) job. NEMO aims to offer information on things hitting Earths environment becoming intense fireballs, using information collected by means of social media reports across Europe and worldwide, along with observations from the FRIPON fireball network.
Just a few days back, a test variation of the software was installed at ESAs mission control and operations centre in the Space Safety Office.
The FRIPON network consists of 150 fisheye cameras working together to outline the course of meteorites entering Europes skies, supporting efforts to obtain fresh-fallen meteorites for research study. It began in France, lead by the IMCCE-Paris Observatory, MNHN-National History Museum and GEOPS-Paris Sud University. Data are kept and processed at OSU-Pyheas-Marseille.
On this celebration, 2 cams spotted the speedy fireball, one situated at the Cosmos Sterrenwacht observatory in the Netherlands, and the other at the University of Oldenburg in Germany.