‘We found it!’
At 9.04 pm on the evening of March 13th 2024, a fireball shot across the South Island of New Zealand. The combined fireball path was calculated from 96 to 23 km elevation by four camera stations, which showed that it decelerated from 18 km/s to 5 km/s. The dark flight model for the main mass resulted in a strewn field in the Tekapo/Takapō region of the central South Island, and an 810 gram fusion-encrusted stony meteorite was recovered within 30 minutes of beginning the public search (see the MeteorNews article for the full story).
Fireballs Aotearoa’s network comprises meteor-tracking camera mounted in schools, institutions, observatories and with the public. The goals of our non-commercial camera network are to aid the discovery and characterisation of New Zealand’s next meteorite, feed into global meteor shower observations, and engage the public in night-sky observations. We are a Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. We welcome anyone who’s interested.
The meteorite is now officially recognised by The Meteoritical Society as the “Takapō” meteorite. Click here for the official Bulletin.
Report a Meteorite
Do you have a rock you think might be a meteorite- Send an email to meteorites@rasnz.org.nz with images and a description of the rock. Make sure these are in focus, and try to image broken surfaces that might show the rock interior. Please also include when and where it was found. We have no commercial interest in meteorites. If your rock turns out to be a meteorite, we urge you to donate it to a museum so that it can be appreciated by public and scientists. If you wish to buy a meteorite, then there are plenty of locations
Donations
We are extremely grateful to the two anonymous donors that helped us get the network active. Their generous contributions were used to purchase cameras and enable our volunteers to build, configure and dispatch them. We would welcome opportunities to partner with more people or, for example, have someone sponsor a camera for a school or observatory. Get in touch with at FireballsAotearoa@gmail.com.
Acknowledgements
Fireballs Aotearoa expresses its appreciation to its supporters and donors, including the anonymous ones (you know who you are!) and:
