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NASA and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute are asking for the public’s help finding footage photos and video of a daylight meteor that fell over Northern California on Sunday, the NASA Ames Research Center announced Wednesday.
The meteor was sighted over the Sierra Nevada mountains shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday, causing a sonic boom heard throughout the area, researchers said.
Through more photos and videos of the meteor, NASA and SETI researchers hope to analyze the trajectory of the meteor as it fell, lending insight into its orbit in space and where meteorite fragments may have landed on Earth.
Astronomer Peter Jenniskens with NASA Ames and the SETI Institute already found a four-gram fragment of the meteor in a parking lot in Lotus, Calif. on the American River.
“This appears to be a rare type of primitive meteorite rich in organic compounds,” Jenniskens said.
Anyone who took photos or video of the meteor has been asked to contact Jenniskens at petrus.m.jenniskens@nasa.gov.
Fascinating stuff! I wonder how they find small meteor fragments like the four gram piece mentioned in the article. I would be hard pressed to find anything that size even in my small back yard.