By vigilantly tracing dashcam footage from an especially magnificent fireball seen over main Europe in February 2020, a group of scientists recognized the possible source of the space rock.The fireball, which appeared on Feb. 28 and 10:30 a.m. regional time, was tape-recorded by a handful of cams spread out across Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria and Hungary. And the video appeared to reveal a space rock getting into 17 smaller sized pieces during an airburst occasion, when an asteroid survives the extreme passage through Earths environment however takes off previously striking the planets surface.Local homeowners found three pieces near the Slovenian city of Novo Mesto, weighing a total of 1.6 lbs. (720 grams). (However, the biggest piece seen in the video– potentially 2 pounds. or 10 kilograms by itself, the researchers say– is not among them.)Related: How to photo meteors and meteor showersA screenshot of the system scientists used to correlate video of a February 2020 fireball with still images. (Image credit: Denis Vida et al.)In order to better comprehend the event, a group of researchers chose to piece together the footage to track the space rocks path to Earth. Generally, that would be accomplished by tracing a fireballs path throughout the stars– but this meteor fell during the day.So the researchers hired local citizens to picture the very same landmarks that appear in the videos. Combining the fireball footage, the sky images and footage of a recognized light source filmed by among the same types of cams utilized on the fireball, the scientists were able to piece together a course for the space rock.The path recommends that the meteor may come from a near-Earth asteroid, although the researchers arent sure.Although the scientists were able to improvise ways to use the observations they had for the fireball, they d choose future meteors in the area do them the thanks to getting here overnight, because main Europe is chock filled with overnight electronic cameras.”The fireballs course remains in a volume of the worlds sky amongst the most largely observed by specialist night-operating cameras,” Denis Vida, a planetary researcher at Western University in Toronto, Canada, stated in a declaration released by the Europlanet Society, at whose annual conference he presented the research on Tuesday (Sept. 21). “Its course would have been caught by at least 20 if it happened simply a few hours previously.”Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
