A synthetic intelligence program recommends there might be hundreds of thousands of meteorites left for researchers to find on the icy fields of Antarctica and exposes what might be the most likely locations to discover them, a new study finds.Nearly two-thirds of all meteorites recovered on Earth come from in Antarctica. Over time, snow builds up there, compacts and becomes ice, embedding these area rocks within ice sheets that flow toward the margins of the continent.Mars meteorites: Pieces of the Red Planet on Earth (pictures) Most ice-entrapped Antarctic meteorites end up in the ocean.” By visiting these locations and utilizing new recovery methods in the field, such as surveys with drones, we are about to go into a new age of Antarctic meteorite recovery missions,” Tollenaar said.A freshly devised “treasure map” to find meteorites in Antarctica, produced with the help of a synthetic intelligence program.
An expert system program recommends there may be hundreds of thousands of meteorites left for researchers to discover on the icy fields of Antarctica and exposes what might be the most likely places to unearth them, a new research study finds.Nearly two-thirds of all meteorites recovered in the world come from Antarctica. The cold, dry nature of the frozen continent assists protect these extraterrestrial rocks, and the dark colors of these stones make them stand out versus ice and snow. Meteorites were originally part of planetary bodies, therefore these space rocks from the bottom of the world have actually yielded many important clues about the nature, origins and advancement of the rest of the solar system.When meteorites fall on Antarctica, they usually land in the snow-covered regions that cover 98% of the continent. With time, snow accumulates there, compacts and becomes ice, embedding these area rocks within ice sheets that flow towards the margins of the continent.Mars meteorites: Pieces of the Red Planet on Earth (photos) Most ice-entrapped Antarctic meteorites end up in the ocean. Some of them get concentrated on the surface of these ice sheets in locations of “blue ice,” where wind and other factors can result in bare ice with an azure shade. If the method the Antarctic ice is flowing and other functions of the environment and surface are right, meteorites can stay exposed on the surface area of blue ice, where researchers can easily recuperate them during field missions. Nearly all Antarctic meteorites discovered to date were recuperated from blue ice areas.Many of todays recognized meteorite-rich blue ice locations were discovered by large luck and previous experience on costly reconnaissance objectives. Now scientists have actually established a new method based on artificial intelligence.” We found some unexplored locations with a great prospective to discover meteorites,” study lead author Veronica Tollenaar, a glaciologist at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, informed Space.com.In the brand-new study, researchers had synthetic intelligence software application evaluate satellite data of the whole surface of Antarctica. Their aim was to determine the zones most likely to harbor as-yet-undiscovered meteorites on the frozen continent based upon their similarities to areas where researchers had actually formerly uncovered area rocks. They focused on optical, thermal and radar information of surface features such as temperature, slope and speed of the ice.The AI program precisely identified nearly 83% of known meteorite-rich Antarctic zones. All in all, it identified more than 600 possibly meteorite-rich zones on the continent, consisting of many currently undiscovered ones, a variety of which are reasonably near to existing research study stations on Antarctica.” By checking out these areas and utilizing brand-new recovery methods in the field, such as studies with drones, we are about to enter a brand-new era of Antarctic meteorite recovery missions,” Tollenaar said.A freshly devised “treasure map” to find meteorites in Antarctica, created with the help of an expert system program. Likewise indicates the Antarctic research stations (as noted by COMNAP, https://www.comnap.aq/). (Image credit: Veronica Tollenaar) The brand-new findings suggest that the more than 45,000 meteorites recovered to date from Antarctica comprise simply 5% to 13% of all the meteorites there. “Our calculations recommend that more than 300,000 meteorites are still present at the surface of the ice sheet,” Tollenaar stated. “The potential stays enormous.” Given that their AI program is not 100% accurate, researchers might in some cases go to a website the software application found appealing and not discover any meteorites, Tollenaar cautioned. Still, although unsuccessful objectives will show disappointing, their data will ideally assist improve the AI to make it better in the future, she said.The researchers detailed their findings online Wednesday (Jan. 26) in the journal Science Advances. They likewise discuss the lead to an extremely user-friendly way at this website.Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook..
