{"id":19994,"date":"2022-11-21T01:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T17:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/defence-satellites-weather-radars-and-drones-lead-to-major-meteorite-find\/"},"modified":"2024-09-24T12:09:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T04:09:21","slug":"defence-satellites-weather-radars-and-drones-lead-to-major-meteorite-find","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/defence-satellites-weather-radars-and-drones-lead-to-major-meteorite-find\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence satellites, weather radars and drones lead to major meteorite find"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine years after a six-tonne asteroid crashed through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere over South Australia, researchers have used a combination of defence satellites, weather radars and drones to locate the largest meteorite-strewn area in Australia since the Murchison meteorite fall in 1969.<\/p>\n

A team of researchers from Â鶹ֱ²¥, Monash University and the Bureau of Meteorology drew on information captured by both US Department of Defence satellites and local weather radar data to determine the likely location of surviving meteorites, which they then honed in on using drones and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Dr Hadrien Devillepoix from Â鶹ֱ²¥\u2019s Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC<\/a>) said the discovery was the first time meteorites have been found using non-US radar data, made possible by the Bureau of Meteorology having recently made its own weather radar data<\/a> available for research.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to the weather radar data gives us the ability to track meteorites as they fall through the lower atmosphere, similar to rain,\u201d Dr Devillepoix said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found meteorite signatures for the 2013 event, allowing us to map the 6km fall zone just north of Port Augusta.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuided by a new technique<\/a> developed by SSTC\u2019s Seamus Anderson, meteorites were automatically identified in drone survey images of the fall zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing artificial intelligence and machine learning to map a meteorite strewn field is a world first and searching such a large area on foot would have taken weeks rather than days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Andy Tomkins from Monash University led the field search, recovering a total of 44 samples, weighing just over 4kg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese samples are all from a six-tonne asteroid that would have broken up high in our atmosphere and this event is exciting as it is the first strewn field discovered since the famous Murchison meteorite fall in 1969,\u201d Professor Tomkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamples were carefully collected to avoid any contamination by microbes from outside the natural environment, following the directive of Monash University microbiologist Dr Rachael Lappan.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Lappan and her team will now undertake the first study of how microbes interact with a newly fallen meteorite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to test the theory that as microbes first move into a new environment, they initially survive by consuming minerals and even gases from the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology\u2019s Dr Joshua Soderholm said using radar data to help locate the meteorite remnants was an exciting new application for the technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bureau\u2019s weather radars are used primarily for monitoring precipitation but are also able to detect anything present in the sky, including birds, bats and insects, however using them to hunt for meteorites was unprecedented,\u201d Dr Soderholm said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ben McHenry from the South Australian Museum, where a collection of stones from the meteorite will soon be displayed, said the samples were an invaluable addition to the museum\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a terrific collaboration between the universities, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Synchotron and our museum to share the excitement of this discovery with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The samples will be on display at the South Australian Museum from November 26 2022 \u2013 February 5 2023 as part of the Six Extinctions<\/a> exhibition.<\/p>\n

Scientists from Monash and Curtin are undertaking further research on the meteorites and looking to apply the radar technique to other meteorite and space debris falls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers have used a combination of defence satellites, weather radars and drones to locate the largest meteorite-strewn area in Australia since the Murchison meteorite fall in 1969.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4307,"featured_media":14424,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1066],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-19994","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence","tag-sstc"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"experts":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/resize-meteorite_field_searching-1-1920x1080.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Lucien","last_name":"Wilkinson","display_name":"Lucien Wilkinson"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=19994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}