Meteoroids, meteors and meteorites are studied by Astronomy and Astrophysics departments in Universities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Here is some basic information behind this mātauranga:
What is a fireball?
How to find a meteorite
The Nininger paradox
Is it a meteorite?
Fast Facts
- More than 80,000 meteorites have been found world-wide
- Only about 80 of these 80,000 were photographed as they arrived as a fireball
- Meteor camera networks photograph incoming meteors from multiple locations
- Capturing fireballs on multiple cameras allows the path through the atmosphere to be calculated accurately
- From this, the meteorite’s landing point can be estimated
- This helps us find it before it gets rained on or very contaminated (most meteorites are discovered too late for studies of volatile characteristics of meteors)
- As an example of the success of this strategy, Fireballs Aotearoa recovered the Takapō meteorite in 2024 and the Ruamāhanga meteorite in 2026
- The object’s orbit before hitting the Earth can also be calculated
- With a freshly-recovered object and a calculation of where in the solar system it came from we can learn much about our solar system
- Also, the meteorite’s strength, density and composition can be compared with its path through the atmosphere to learn more about the physics of meteorite and comet impacts