AN Anglesey museum which is used to dealing with ancient history is now turning its attention to objects billions of years old blazing their way across the Welsh sky. Special high tech camera equipment has been placed on the island's councilrun Oriel Mon museum and arts centre in Llangefni which is helping to gather research about meteorites.
It is one of three in Wales, including one in Aberystwyth and another in Cardiff. A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal fragment that falls to earth from space. Meteoroids are rocks that still are in space, and range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, but when meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or 'shooting stars' are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's then called a meteorite.
Within days of the new technology being put into place on the popular museum, art gallery and cafe roof - organisers were delighted that it soon recorded an event.
The camera is helping to provide information for research as part of SCAMP - the System for Capture of Asteroid and Meteorite Paths, the UK component of an international network known as FRIPON - the Fireball Recovery and Inter-Planetary Observation Network. SCAMP cameras had been originally installed at sites in Honiton and London, but now the network consists of a number across the UK, hosted by research institutions, local astronomy societies and citizenscientists.
SCAMP is also part of the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll), a collaboration between the UK's meteor camera networks that aims to recover freshly fallen meteorites. According to its website, in February 2021, data from SCAMP cameras in Cardiff, Honiton, and Manchester played 'an important role' in the recovery of the Winchcombe meteorite described as 'a rare carbonaceous chondrite fall.'
The Royal Society Winchcombe Meteorite website said: "Just before 10pm on February 28, 2021, a spectacular...
It is one of three in Wales, including one in Aberystwyth and another in Cardiff. A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal fragment that falls to earth from space. Meteoroids are rocks that still are in space, and range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, but when meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or 'shooting stars' are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's then called a meteorite.
Within days of the new technology being put into place on the popular museum, art gallery and cafe roof - organisers were delighted that it soon recorded an event.
The camera is helping to provide information for research as part of SCAMP - the System for Capture of Asteroid and Meteorite Paths, the UK component of an international network known as FRIPON - the Fireball Recovery and Inter-Planetary Observation Network. SCAMP cameras had been originally installed at sites in Honiton and London, but now the network consists of a number across the UK, hosted by research institutions, local astronomy societies and citizenscientists.
SCAMP is also part of the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll), a collaboration between the UK's meteor camera networks that aims to recover freshly fallen meteorites. According to its website, in February 2021, data from SCAMP cameras in Cardiff, Honiton, and Manchester played 'an important role' in the recovery of the Winchcombe meteorite described as 'a rare carbonaceous chondrite fall.'
The Royal Society Winchcombe Meteorite website said: "Just before 10pm on February 28, 2021, a spectacular...
You're reading a preview of
Daily Post (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 19, 2024