Ball of fire: hunt on for meteorite caught on cameras
THE search for an elusive metallic rock which lit up the skies above Otago is well and truly under way.
Geology students from the University of Otago have been on the trail, searching farmland for a meteorite which was expected to have struck Earth last Sunday, and a local school pupil is hot on their heels.
Fireballs Aotearoa estimated the meteorite landed somewhere southeast of Middlemarch and west of Outram, near Dunedin.
It was captured while falling by nightsky cameras at Dunstan High School and the
Beverly Begg Observatory, in Dunedin, set up by Fireballs Aotearoa with the goal of tracking meteorites.
Based on the photos, trajectory, speed and weather data, they had mapped an area of its likely location.
Pupils at Lee Stream School were excited the rock may be in their backyard.
Violet Gray (10), who lives in the area, said her family had received an email about the phenomenon and she was excited to join the hunt.
Her father, Lee Stream farmer Tim Gray, said he had been approached by geologists asking to search his property for the space rock, and about 20 had been on the farm throughout yesterday following maps and data, trying to locate where it fell.
He said Violet was excited to join the search, and he planned to take his children out over the weekend if the scientists were unsuccessful.
Associate Prof James Scott, of the Otago University department of geology, was confident the meteorite had dropped between 1kg and 10kg of material.
He said they would be lucky to find the rock, but were glad they had all the scientific data to aid in the search.
‘‘We know what the wind was doing when it fell, and the fact it landed on farmland instead of in a bushy area makes it much easier.’’
If it had landed in bush it ‘‘would be like a needle in a haystack’’.
Just nine confirmed meteorites have fallen in New Zealand over the past 150 years, and the discovery of a new one would ‘‘be huge’’, he said.
If the rock was found, they would make a discreet cut to discover what mysteries lay inside.
Otago secondyear master’s student Thomas Stevenson has been out directing the geologists on how to find the ‘‘shiny black, metallic rock, which we expect to be made of iron’’.
His team had been scouring the farmland in groups, walking in lines 5m10m apart.
If they found the rock on Mr Gray’s farm, they would have to make a deal as it would legally be his property.
Fireballs Aotearoa astronomer Jeremy Taylor asked anyone else considering joining the search not to trespass.
‘‘If you find a piece on your land or on a road, please let us know.
‘‘Don’t take any risks searching for it and don’t go where you shouldn’t.’’