Alice Springs, Australia
3 min read
May 20, 2019 12:17 AM ACST – CNEOS
The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), is part of the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. CNEOS collects data from U.S. Government sensors, and releases it for research purposes. CNEOS data is available publicly at https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/.... reported a 0.11 kiloton event in Australia’s Northern Territory, near the town of Alice Springs. This was a large fireball, which came in at a very steep angle and there are likely meteorites on the ground. However, there is significant uncertainty as to the exact location of the fireball, so the search area is large. Please review the links below and the attached files for detailed info.
| Event Source(s): | CNEOS |
| Date/Time: | 05/19/2019 14:47:03 UTC |
| Location: | 100km W of Alice Springs, NT, AUS |
| Reference Coordinates: | 23.6°S 132.8°E Google Map |
| Reference Altitude: | 33.3 km above sea level |
| Energy / Mass Estimate: | 0.11kt / 3984kg |
| Entry Speed: | 15.2 km/s |
Bearing The direction of travel of the meteoroid, relative to the ground, in clockwise degrees from North. The terms "heading" and "bearing" may be used interchangeably for projectile motion....: | 103.7° E |
| Slope: | 11.5° from vertical |
Event Videos
The videos shown here were used to calculate the trajectory of the meteor, in the file attached below.
Important Legal Notice
Meteorites are protected by law in Australia. Please refer to the Meteorites Act 1987 and contact the Tjoritja / West MacDonnell National Park before searching.
StrewnLAB Results & Data
This event was a bit odd, because it had a tailwind, and the lighter fragments
Typically, meteoroids breaks apart during flight through the atmosphere. Much of the material evaporates in a process called ablation, leaving only small stones to find. Occaisionally, large meteor events can drop meteorites as large as several kilograms, but it is much more likely to find the smaller, more numerous fragments, in the 10 to 100 gram size range.... would have been blown eastward along the trajectory, effectively catching up to the heavier fragments. Depending on variation in wind speed, this could make the strewn field
The geographic area where meteorites landed, from a specific meteor event. The strewn field size and shape are affected by the size of the event, the slope of the meteor, and the wind speed and direction. Generally speaking, meteors that come in a steep angle will generate smaller strewn fields than those that come in at a shallow angle. The presence of wind will affect the size and shape of the strewn field by scattering... very small and dense. However, being sourced primarily from CNEOS, there is a lot of uncertainty in the search area. The attached bulletin and KMZKML or KMZ files are often used to share geographic data and they are most often used in Google Earth software. KML stands for Keyhole Markup Language, which is an XML notation used to store geographic data in the files. KMZ files are simply a zipped version of KML files, which can also contain image overlays and other referenced content. On most meteor events documented on Strewnify, you will find an attached KMZ file, containing... files contain the StrewnLAB
A computer simulation program, written by Jim Goodall. For more information, please visit the StrewnLAB Page.... strewn field and mass zones.
If you plan to hunt for meteorites at this location, feel free to contact Jim Goodall and request a more detailed map.
My name is Jim Goodall, and I am an automotive controls engineer in the Detroit area, but my passion is physics. I started this website as a hobby, to support the global network of meteorite hunters.
Feel free to contact me, if you have any questions about the products on this website. Jim Goodall | Hartland, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888
