Victoria Land, Antarctica
1 min read
McMurdo Station, Antarctica – March 6, 2021, 2:50 AM local time, U.S. Government Sensors detected a 0.13 kiloton event in the Victoria Land region of Antarctica. This was a large fireball, which came in fast, but at a fairly steep angle, so meteorites are possible. The Strewnify team has contacted the team at ANSMET, The Antarctic Search for Meteorites, to see if this material can be recovered in the 2021/2022 season.
| Event ID: | Y20210305_13Z_00B |
| Entry Date/Time: | 2021-03-05 13:50:01 UTC |
| End Location: | 630 km SW of McMurdo Station |
| Endpoint Coordinates: | 81.1°S, -141.1°W |
| Reference Altitude: | 32.5 km above sea level |
| Energy / Mass Estimate: | 0.13kt TNT / 2010 kg |
| Reference Speed: | 23.26 km/s |
| Bearing: | 178.9° WNW |
| Slope: | 25.5° from vertical |
| Estimated Strewn Mass: | <75 kg |
| Classification: | unknown |
| Event Links: | CNEOS |
Search Efforts
Considering the size and speed of the meteor, it is possible that up to 75 kilograms of meteorites are scattered across the snowpack. This region of Antarctica receives less than 20 centimeters of snow each year, so hopefully the meteorites are not covered.
No known search efforts are in progress, due to the remote location, but it would be theoretically possible to mount an expedition to recover meteorites. This effort is recommended, because meteorites preserved in this climate are pristine and very valuable to scientific research.
StrewnLAB Search Area
A trajectory has been provided from 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..., and this data has been run through the StrewnLAB software to predict a search area. Please download and review the Google Earth files below for detailed maps of the search area.
Coming soon…
Weather Data
The weather data below is sourced from weather balloons, and publicly available via NOAA’s Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). This data is downloaded and post-processed by the StrewnLAB
A computer simulation program, written by Jim Goodall. For more information, please visit the StrewnLAB Page.... algorithm, to account for changing weather patterns and weather balloon drift. The plots have altitude on the y-axis, in kilometers above sea level. The wind speed below 10km has large effect on the drift of meteorites.
My name is Jim Goodall, and I am an automotive controls engineer in Michigan, 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