A few fragments of the bolide that lit up the skies of the North of Italy, in the evening of the 1st of January, you might be come to the floor. And then we need to try to look for it. Astrophysicists know where: in Emilia, near the village of Disvetro, only a few kilometres north-west of Cavezzo, in the province of Modena, between Carpi and Mirandola. The meteor (when it is particularly bright is defined bolide) could be become a (or a) meteorite, after the impact with the ground. But if someone you discover a small stone, black, from the peculiar aspect, different from the others that are around there, will have to use some precautions to deliver it intact into the hands of scientists, who may study it as a fossil of the ancient solar System. And, above all, do not keep it to himself. A piece of asteroid falls on the Earth The sighting occurred in most of Northern Italy (Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Liguria, and Tuscany), 19.30 Italian time of the first day of the year, something is ignited upon entering the atmosphere at great speed. It was an event long enough to be immortalized with photos and videos disseminated on the social networks. And he could not escape the cameras of the Prisma project, a national network that collects dozens of astronomical observatories (many of the national Institute of Astrophysics), university, planetary and enthusiasts. Eight of their tools have taken over the blaze, the scientists then did a bit of calculations to reconstruct the trajectory and managed to triangular the place where this mysterious item has arrived and where it could be dropped.
“The aphelion, the point in the orbit most distant from the Sun, is located in the inner region of the Main belt of asteroids: then it was a meteoroid source asteroid, probably of the rocky nature,” writes Albino Carbognani , a researcher at the Inaf Observatory of Bologna, in an article on the website of the Prisma project. Astrophysicists estimate that is entered into the atmosphere at a relatively low speed, about 12 kilometers per second, but with a high angle of fall. Then he started cracking, crumpling into various pieces, between 50 and 30 kilometers altitude. The evaluation of a mass of several kilograms (for comparison, the ‘normal’ shooting stars measure just a few grams), so one of these pieces could be now in the middle of the Po valley, more precisely in the town of Disvetro and “considered the processes of fragmentation, the meteoroid went subject, some piece could be finished on the line joining between Rovereto on the Secchia and Disvetro”. How to recognize him do Not know yet if there really is a meteorite, nor what may be its dimensions. Then the conditional is required. But to recognize the indications are rather simple: it is presented as a “small stone covered in a dark patina, and with the rounded corners”, burnt, and polished by the intense friction generated when it is entered by the space in the atmosphere. “Look but don’t touch” To be studied, a meteorite must be harvested and preserved, not contaminated, for example, by contact with the skin or the breath. The recommendation of the experts is therefore to photograph it, to mark with precision the place of discovery (also with the geographical coordinates, perhaps with a geotag of the photo) and report it immediately to the Prisma project (prisma_po@inaf.it), where the scientists will evaluate whether it is in fact a meteorite or a simple stone. To pick it up, use a sheet of aluminium foil and a clean glass container.
Maybe it’s #fall with a #meteorite in the Emilia-Romagna region. The “map” indicates as the place of likely to fall in the village of #Disvetro, a few km to the north-west of #Cavezzo (Modena). If you find some of the fragments, the first to collect them follow the instructions: https://t.co/ribQjxBOHJ #PRISM pic.twitter.com/upVuEAYfUU
— MEDIA INAF (@mediainaf) January 2, 2020
A fossil space given its provenance, this meteorite may contain important information about the history of our solar System. The range of the asteroids, in fact, is largely made up of “pieces of scrap” that are not aggregated into planets or have not been drawn: “to be Able to gather even a small fragment would mean to be able to study how was the Solar System billions of years ago, immediately after its formation. Each meteorite is the witness of a bygone age, for this reason none should be lost,” concludes Carbognani, adding that keeping it to ourselves is not useful to anyone, in fact, “the meteorites are not classified are of no commercial value, then, that the discovery is something the fragment must first be analyzed and classified by the researchers of the Inaf or the University: do not keep in the drawer of a suspected meteorite!”.
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