NO ORDINARY ROCKS, THESE
Burnt meteor parts that fell in the UAE desert last week were located by a team of experts from the International Astronomy Centre Abu Dhabi. The UAE recently witnessed two incidents of fireballs streaking across its skies at a speed of 67,000kmph.
abu dhabi — UAE skies witnessed the second fireball in a week on Tuesday as experts located possible parts of a burnt meteor that appeared on March 5.
Mohammed Shawkat, director of the International Astronomy Centre Abu Dhabi, told Khaleej
that the meteor appeared at 11.50pm on Tuesday. The first fireball appeared on March 5 at 7.40pm. He said investigations and calculations are under way to identify the route, altitude, speed and expected location of the new meteor.
“The centre has received many calls from eyewitnesses,” he said, adding that this was the third meteor to be spotted in the UAE skies since the centre was founded in 2016. “The first super bright fireball was recorded on October 1, 2016.”
The new meteor, as was the case with the last week’s fireball, has been recorded by a special network of astronomical cameras, he added. “These cameras have been installed by the centre at different parts of the country and these are managed in collaboration with Nasa.”
The network consists of several stations and each has 16 astronomical cameras directed to the sky all the time.
parts of burnt meteor located
Meanwhile, a team of experts from the centre managed to locate possible parts of the burnt meteor that fell in the UAE desert last week, Shawkat told Khaleej Times.
Cameras record the movements of any meteor that appears in the sky, sending high definition footages to the station.”
Mohammed Shawkat, director of the International Astronomy Centre Abu Dhabi
Four groups, equipped with special scan and search gadgets, were assigned to search a particular area. “The 3.5-hour search, from 2.30pm to 6pm, ended in finding two possible samples; the first was a dark rock while the second was a rock mixed with rusted iron.”
Quick on-the-spot tests proved some magnetic traits of the second sample, he explained. “The centre contacted Nasa partners and shared the pictures of the samples with them.”
The second sample of rust iron rock is probably of an old meteor, he underlined. “Based on calculations, the meteor was found to have been orbiting at a distance of 384 million kilometres off the sun. It was travelling at a speed of 67,000kmph when it entered Earth’s atmosphere.”