We had 21 written reports, 6 app reports, 6 dash cam videos and 59 appearances on TV, radio, online and print newspapers, so you probably heard about it – a fireball over Perth in mid-morning last month.
The only meteorite-finding content missing was capturing the fireball on our DFN cameras, because they are designed only to operate after dark (read about the fireball day on our blog to find out why daytime meteors are rare and exciting).
The Perth Daytime Fireball traveled through the sky at a speed faster than 20km/s at about 9:26 am on Monday 9 March. Our best estimates place the fall site (if indeed some of those rocks didn’t get entirely burnt up in the atmosphere) about 50km south-south-west of Moora. It’s been an exciting time for us, but almost equally frustrating with no quick results – that’s science folks! The team have recruited the help of the surveyors from the Spatial Science department at Curtin to pin-point the angles and distances from each of the videos (read about surveying on our blog to find out how this works). Unfortunately because the fireball traveled north of Perth in a north-north-westerly direction, all of the footage comes from a very narrow angle. This introduces a large margin of error no matter how accurate you refine the data. Ideally we’d have a video of the event somewhere east or west of the flight as well (e.g. Wongan Hills, Jurien Bay, Moora), so if you know of any possible leads, email us!
When (or if) we get to a point where there’s a searchable area and we are confident of meteorites on the ground, we’ll be sure to let you know so you can come and help!