The Desert Fireball Network is a digital, autonomous network of cameras. When they simultaneously photograph the same fireball from hundreds of km away, we can use those images to track a landing position of a possible meteorite AND it's orbit in the solar system.
Digital network key for keeping an eye on meteorite flight path
Scientists will this year begin rolling out a new-generation network of digital cameras in desert regions of Australia to capture images of incoming meteorites. Source
The WA outback is set to host up to 60 cameras that will track the path of shooting stars as they fall through the atmosphere and help scientists find meteorites that land in the desert. The first camera will be established in about a month, with the others to be rolled out progressively. When a rock falls to Earth, the Desert Fireball Network will capture the shooting star on several cameras. Read more
Sentry cameras pick up asteroid impacts for astro-geology study
An international project, tracking the origin of meteorites using astronomical-type cameras in the Nullarbor Desert could unlock secrets in the solar system. Speaking at a public lecture on the origin of meteorites at Curtin University recently, applied geology Professor Philip Bland says expanding the existing Desert Fireball Network could help create a geological map of the solar system. Read more
Scientists are celebrating the discovery of a second meteorite in the Western Australian desert using 'star gazing' cameras. The images from the cameras will reveal the space rocks original orbit in the Solar System. Meteorites are a geological record of the formation of the Solar System, providing important information about early conditions. Locating where they come from is important, because it enables scientists to link geological information to the correct location in space. However, information about where individual meteorites originated, and how they moved around the Solar System before falling to Earth is rare; we know the origins of only a dozen of around 1100 documented meteorite falls over the past 200 years. Read more
An unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs travelling across the sky. The network of cameras is in the Nullabor Desert in Western Australia. It allows scientists to track a fireball path, formed by a meteorite as it travels through Earth's atmosphere, and then work out where the meteorite comes to rest. Read more
Nullarbor fireball cameras find rare meteorite Using cameras which capture fireballs streaking across the night sky and sophisticated mathematics, a world-wide team of scientists have managed to find not only a tiny meteorite on the vast Nullarbor Plain, but also its orbit and the asteroid it came from.
The Western Australian Museum today revealed a new golf ball-sized meteorite that was tracked falling onto the Nullarbor Plain by a network of cameras. PerthNow reports the meteorite was tracked as it fell to Earth in July 2007 landing in a remote area in South Australia.