A ship of scientists catches the destruction of a meteorite by surprise



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At the time the image was taken, the researchers were in the Tasman Sea, about 100 kilometers south of the coast. The scientific mission that witnessed the scene is the mapping of the seabed.

The Investigator research vessel, operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has captured stunning images of a meteor crashing into the ocean near Tasmania.

The vision shows the extremely bright meteor crossing the sky in front of the ship and then crashing into the ocean. The meteor, bright green in color, was seen by the bridge crew and reported to the scientific personnel on board.

They were surprised to find that the meteor was perfectly captured by the ship’s live broadcast camera, which broadcasts the live view from the ship without interruption. The sequence was broadcast by CSIRO on their Twitter account.

CSIRO travel manager aboard researcher John Hooper said it was a stroke of luck capturing this footage. “What we saw when reviewing the images from the live stream amazed us, the size and brightness of the meteor was incredible.” Hooper said in a statement.

“The meteor crosses the sky directly ahead of the ship and then breaks apart. It was great to see the footage and we were very lucky to have captured it all on the ship’s live stream. “

Glen Nagle of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science said that capturing images like this is exciting to watch and serves as a reminder that space is far from empty. “More than 100 tons of natural space debris enters Earth’s atmosphere every day,” Nagle said.

“Most go unnoticed as they occur in an uninhabited area like the southern ocean. When a meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, it is the friction of the rock with the atmosphere that causes it to burn, as its kinetic energy is converted into other forms such as heat, light and sound.

“Many meteorites were asteroids and traveled in space following their own trajectory. This changes as they pass close to the Earth, where they can be affected by its gravitational pull. When they enter our atmosphere, they become meteors and their entry can be visually spectacular. “

At the time the vision was captured, RV Investigator was in the Tasman Sea, about 100 kilometers south of the Tasmanian coast.

The ship is in the area to map the Huon Marine Park seabed for Parks Australia, conduct oceanographic surveys and conduct sea trials for a variety of marine equipment.

The meteor was filmed by RV Investigator on Wednesday November 18th at 10:21 UTC.

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