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West Australian
27-05-2025
- Science
- West Australian
‘We found a meteorite!': Joy as rare space rocks discovered in WA outback
A team of scientists has uncovered two rare meteorite fragments on remote salt flats in outback Western Australia, days after a fireball lit up the skies above Perth and surrounding regions on Mother's Day. Researchers from Curtin University, part of the Desert Fireball Network, traced the meteorite's dramatic descent to Lake Hope, a barren expanse roughly seven hours east of Perth, using hi-tech weather modelling and an extensive network of sky-monitoring cameras. Planetary scientist Hadrien Devillepoix told 9News the team used the advanced weather modelling to predict how the meteorite would drift in the wind once it had slowed down enough. They then drove for hours through rugged terrain and dense bush before trekking on foot more than seven kilometres across the lake's salt flats. As the team trekked across the salt flats, 9News footage captured the moment team member Mia Walker raised her arms in triumph and shouted, 'We found a meteorite!' 'I started running and it was so special, I saw this hole in the lake and it only took, you know, just a little tug to pull it out,' Ms Walker said. 'It's very special, it's very exciting to get to find one of these.' Shortly after their initial discovery, the team struck gold again, uncovering a second fragment not far from the first. Among the finds was a significant chunk of space rock, one of the largest the team has recovered to date. 'Here's a piece of space rock that's been travelling the solar system for four and a half billion years,' Dr Devillepoix said. 'And now it's in our hands and we can use it for science, that's so exciting.' He said rain was forecast and the salt flats could be submerged 'in a matter of days.' 'That could have been lost forever,' he said. The meteorite fragments will now undergo detailed analysis in a laboratory to determine their composition and pinpoint their origin in the solar system.
West Australian
19-05-2025
- Science
- West Australian
Ravensthorpe police officers finds Mother's Day meteor 460km east of Perth in Goldfields salt lake
The meteor that lit up the skies over Western Australia in the early hours of Mother's Day has been located in the Goldfields by an amateur meteorite searcher and police officer. The meteor — dubbed the Mother's Day meteor — flew through the skies on May 11, just before sunrise, catching eyes with bursts of orange and green light. Reports of the object spanned much of the State, with the brightest reports and vision from the Wheatbelt and Goldfields regions. Six days later, the meteorite was found in the Goldfields south of the Breakaways, 460km east of Perth. It was found thanks to calculations from the Desert Fireball Network — a group of meteorite researchers from Curtin University — and the willpower of Ravensthorpe police officer Marcus Scott who reached it first on foot as the researchers separately flew overhead. Mr Scott drove two hours to the potential site after seeing media reports of the meteor and seeing the estimated landing area. His search lasted nearly four hours after trudging through dense bushland, and it wasn't until he had just turned back to beat nightfall that he struck gold. Mr Scott said he had been looking for meteorites for the past three years, and while he has found many in the past, none were quite as exciting as this one. 'It was good, I mean there was no dancing or anything but certainly I was aware of its importance,' he said. 'I'm aware that not a lot of people get to find what are referred to as falls, meteorites that have been witnessed when they're coming in. 'I was aware of its importance and I'm happy to find a bit.' The fact it was in a salt lake made the search easier as looking for an indent in the surface was a telltale sign, Mr Scott said. 'The fireball scientists put their estimate of where it was, I noted that most of it went through salt lake country which makes finding meteorites quite easy,' he said. 'Getting there was a struggle, very overgrown bush but once you're out on the salt lakes it makes it a bit easier when you're looking for something that's punched a hole in the salt lake crust.' The meteorite is expected to be collected for study so researchers can classify it and find out where it came from'
Perth Now
19-05-2025
- Science
- Perth Now
Excitement as WA Police officer finds Mother's Day meteor
The meteor that lit up the skies over Western Australia in the early hours of Mother's Day has been located in the Goldfields by an amateur meteorite searcher and police officer. The meteor — dubbed the Mother's Day meteor — flew through the skies on May 11, just before sunrise, catching eyes with bursts of orange and green light. Reports of the object spanned much of the State, with the brightest reports and vision from the Wheatbelt and Goldfields regions. A police officer has found the first sample of a meteorite that blazed across WA skies a week ago. Credit: Marcus Scott Six days later, the meteorite was found in the Goldfields south of the Breakaways, 460km east of Perth. It was found thanks to calculations from the Desert Fireball Network — a group of meteorite researchers from Curtin University — and the willpower of Ravensthorpe police officer Marcus Scott who reached it first on foot as the researchers separately flew overhead. Mr Scott drove two hours to the potential site after seeing media reports of the meteor and seeing the estimated landing area. His search lasted nearly four hours after trudging through dense bushland, and it wasn't until he had just turned back to beat nightfall that he struck gold. Mr Scott said he had been looking for meteorites for the past three years, and while he has found many in the past, none were quite as exciting as this one. 'It was good, I mean there was no dancing or anything but certainly I was aware of its importance,' he said. 'I'm aware that not a lot of people get to find what are referred to as falls, meteorites that have been witnessed when they're coming in. 'I was aware of its importance and I'm happy to find a bit.' Mr Scott said the indent into the land as well as the dark colouration of the rock were giveaways it was a meteorite. Credit: Marcus Scott The fact it was in a salt lake made the search easier as looking for an indent in the surface was a telltale sign, Mr Scott said. 'The fireball scientists put their estimate of where it was, I noted that most of it went through salt lake country which makes finding meteorites quite easy,' he said. 'Getting there was a struggle, very overgrown bush but once you're out on the salt lakes it makes it a bit easier when you're looking for something that's punched a hole in the salt lake crust.' The meteorite is expected to be collected for study so researchers can classify it and find out where it came from'
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Meteorite that lit up WA's skies found by police officer, Desert Fireball Network
A country police officer has won the race to recover a meteorite that lit up the skies over southern Western Australia. It's believed the astronomical anomaly dubbed the Mother's Day Meteorite entered the atmosphere over the Central Wheatbelt about 6am on May 11, travelling south. A team of scientists from Curtin University's Desert Fireball Network (DFN), who track meteors across Australia, mapped its trajectory, estimating the impact point just south of the Breakaways, 460 kilometres east of Perth in the state's Goldfields. DFN director Eleanor Sansom and her team was in the sky over the crash site when the discovery was made. "I wasn't quite sure we would see anything, but we pretty quickly came across a few exciting suspects," she said. "We circled around, and there were two or three spots on the lake that we were pretty sure were meteorites in the lake. "Then we saw someone out on one of the lakes, scouting around, and we thought, 'Oh, wow, someone has actually gone out to search.' "That's the person who found one yesterday." The man on the ground was Ravensthorpe police officer and amateur meteorite hunter Marcus Scott. Mr Scott, who has found dozens of meteorites on the Nullarbor, was thrilled when he learnt the meteorite may have fallen in his backyard. After a two-hour drive and scramble through dense bush, Mr Scott reached the salt lake and quickly found what he was looking for. "It's a very easy place to find a meteorite, especially if it's recent, like this one, only being seven days since it fell," he said. "The weather has been pretty good out there, so you're going to see the impact on the salt lake and it will stand out. "This was in an open area and quite easy to spot, but the kangaroo prints and the emu prints from a distance also look like a meteorite impact. "So you can find yourself wasting a lot of time chasing after them." Mr Scott estimated the space rock to be about the size of a tennis ball, weighing about 450 grams. And while not a thing of beauty, he said the Mother's Day Meteorite was one of his most special finds. "There are some very nice meteorites that land on Earth, but I wouldn't rank this as a thing of beauty. "It's more of a thing of interest. "It's only been there for seven days compared to thousands of years, and that makes it a bit more special. While other meteorites he has found have "terrestrial weathering", this one looks "a lot more like what a meteorite should look like". "So I would say it's definitely something worth finding," Mr Scott said. The discovery of the first sample has not stopped Dr Sansom and her team, whose aerial reconnaissance had indicated other samples still to be recovered. "We spotted three potential sites and [Mr Scott's rock] was one of them, then there are probably two more," she said. "When it came through [the atmosphere] there were lots of bright flashes, and every time there's a bright flash, that means the rocks fragmented. "This is going to have quite a lot of little pieces of material … what we call a strewn field. "I think this one's going to be quite a special rock, and if it is, it will be incredible to get as much of it as we can."
ABC News
22-04-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Meteor likely source of fireball in night sky above Australia's east coast says astrophysicist
A bright green ball of fire that caused a sonic boom and lit up the Queensland night sky overnight was most likely a meteor, says an astrophysicist. Experts say it coincided with the University of Southern Queensland astrophysicist Professor Jonti Horner said the event was likely caused by space debris: either a fragment of an asteroid or a comet. He said it was unlikely to be made by humans because of the speed at which it travelled across the night sky. "It looks like it came in too fast, and it detonated high in the atmosphere," Professor Horner said. He said it was unlikely any material from the meteor would have made it to Earth. "[The meteor] looked like it was [travelling around] 40, 50, 60 kilometres a second, and that suggests to me that it was on a more elongated orbit around the sun," Professor Horner said. Professor Jonti Horner said it was unlikely any material from the meteor would have made it to the ground. ( Supplied: USQ ) While the Lyrids meteor shower is now visible, Professor Horner said it was unlikely to be the source of Monday's bright burst of light. He said the Lyrids would not have been visible in Australia at the time the meteor event was seen. Witnesses along the east coast Truck driver Mick Davey said he saw the event while travelling between Moree and the Queensland border town of Goondiwindi. "It was just like a bright ball falling through the sky, then all of a sudden, there was a sonic boom," Mr Davey said. "Then the bright ball broke up into pieces." Photo shows A white streak across a city scape. From Victoria to the Philippines, reports of fireballs seemingly pop up every few weeks. Are they becoming more frequent or are we just better at catching them? He said when he heard the sonic boom hit, the sky lit up like it was daylight. "I'm driving in a truck with all the windows up, the radio playing, and all the rest of it, and I still heard it above all that, so that's how loud it was." Further south, Jeevan Sam was driving from Jervis Bay to Sydney when he saw a "big ball of fire" light up the night sky. "The colour was almost like a bluish green," he said. "The whole sky was lit; we were wondering what was going on." Mr Sam, whose dash cam recorded the phenomenon, said he had never seen anything like it. Space debris Ellie Sansom from the Desert Fireball Network at Curtin University said the size of the event indicated it was likely an asteroid-type object. "It was an amazing bright green fireball, definitely something bigger than what we would be expecting from a meteor shower," Dr Sansom said. She said the object was unlikely from the Lyrids as the object had been travelling from south to north, and any meteor from the Lyrids would have been coming from the north. Dr Sansom said researchers were hoping to determine the origin of the meteor and encouraged witnesses to report any sightings to the International Meteor Organization. "The more witness reports we get, then we might be able to get a better idea of where it came from," she said. ABC Southern Qld — local news in your inbox Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Wednesday Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
