BAN #351: Join a global network of meteor watchers

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Blog Jam

What I’ve recently written on the blog, ICYMI

Monday 16 August, 2021: Saturn's core is big and fuzzy — and its gravity is written in the rings

Tuesday 17 August, 2021: Narrowing down the source of the dinosaur-killer asteroid

Wednesday 18 August, 2021: A newly discovered and huge structure in the Milky Way was hidden right in front of us

Thursday 19 August, 2021: Seeing stars born at the dawn of the Universe

Friday 20 August, 2021: Fly me to the Moon… and then a near-Earth asteroid

Astro Tidbit

A brief synopsis of some interesting astronomy/science news that may be too short for the blog, too long for Twitter, but just right (and cool enough to talk about) for here.

How would you like to participate in a global scientific effort to map out the locations, directions, and even the orbits of incoming meteoroids?

This is very cool, but fair warning: It’s not cheap. Far less expensive than I would’ve thought, but it’s not free.

The Global Meteor Network is — at the moment — a collection of 450 all-sky cameras that take video of the night sky, looking for meteors. These cameras take 25 frames per second and under good conditions can see objects down to about 6th magnitude, which is also about the limit of the human eye. They have automated meteor detection software, so when one streaks across the camera’s field of view it can record the data and do some processing to calculate how bright it was, what direction it was headed, and more (for tons more info on meteors in general, why, I have a Crash Course Astronomy for that).

This data is collected and can be used (in some cases where cameras see the same event) to calculate three-dimensional trajectories which can then be backtracked to calculate the orbit of the bit of rock or ice (the meteoroid) when it was in space.

A whole lot of science can come from this. Meteor showers can be tracked, with rates calculated. Sporadic (non-shower) meteors can be catalogued and statistics calculated. If something drops a meteorite to the ground, the data from the cameras can be used to determine the most likely position of the fall… in other words, it can help find the meteorites! Also, this can help raise awareness about the space environment the Earth moves through.

You can read more about it at their site linked above, as well as on their wiki.

Here’s the thing: These cameras are owned and run by civilian scientists, and not just professional observatories, and they need more people with cameras. The US, for example, has spotty coverage. Some places are well-covered, while huge areas are not. The map shows where the cameras are, as well as how far away they can see a meteor (assuming meteors burn up at 100 km altitude).

Do you live in a spot not covered? Do you want to join in?

They’re looking for people to get cameras to set up. They sell them — they need to cover their costs — in various levels, from just the camera and software to a full-up weatherproof station to mount it in. The price depends on what you get, but the complete system is 500 Euros (roughly $680 US; check the current conversion rate to see). That’s not lunch money, but then again I’m impressed with how inexpensive it is given what you get.

I mean, come ON:

If you need more goading, a scientific paper has been published about GMN and includes some calculations they did with real data. While the network is decentralized, it’s organized by a group in Croatia. They seem to have their act together, with a lot of info on how to get, set up, and use the cameras.

I love all this. A network like this is massively useful, if only just to build up statistics of incoming meteoroids, which was something historically difficult to do due to lack of coverage. Now, with automated cameras and the internet, it’s a whole lot easier. So if you have the time and the desire (and the money), you might want to give this a try. It’s real science, and really cool science, too.

Et alia

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