Rare meteorite recovered in the U.K.- and the Amazing Facts Behind it

On February 28th, many cities and towns in the United Kingdom caught photos of a meteorite that streaked through the sky and landed there. In today's blog you'll learn how crazy fast it was traveling, what "meteorite ablation" means, and its likely origin in the solar system!  I gathered info from the UKFireball Alliance report and details from the Imperial College of London to write this blog. It's pretty fascinating. Read on!  >>

(Image Credit:  image is from a video by Ben Stanley, processed by Markus Kempf of the AllSky7 network, via Imperial College London.) 

A Meteorite Caused a Huge Fireball display in UK, and Led to a Rare Find

The U.K. Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) used a network of cameras around the United Kingdom on Feb 28 to recreate a fireball’s flight path before it landed there. The cameras allowed scientists to determine exactly where in the solar system the space rock came from and follow it to its landfall.  It’s likely to become known as the Winchcombe meteorite, according to meteorite experts at the University of Manchester Natural History Museum, because it landed in  Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK. It’s the first recovered meteorite in the U.K. in the past 30 years.

(Photo credit: Credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum)

HOW FAST WAS THE METEORITE MOVING?  The UKFAll classified the Winchcombe meteor as an SPO (Sporadic type, not associated with any known meteor shower) and entered Earth’s atmosphere at speed of 14 kilometers per second (that's 31,317 miles per hour!). "

WHAT IS METEORITE ABLATION? Meteor ablation occurs when a meteor travels through the Earth's atmosphere and the aerodynamic pressure of the surrounding atmosphere surpasses the material strength of the object. This generates heat from atmospheric entry and breaks up the object, causing it to lose mass. 

WHAT IS IT MADE UP OF? The Imperial College of London noted, "The meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite, a class that comprises some of the most primitive space rocks known. These rocks formed in the very earliest days of the Solar System and have remained largely unchanged in the many millions of years since, and so provide a pristine window into our cosmic past."

HOW MUCH DID IT ULTIMATELY WEIGH? The group ultimately recovered about 10.5 ounces (300 grams) of the meteorite. Part of it landed on a driveway in the town of Winchcombe

WHERE DID IT COME FROM? UKFAll noted that origins of meteorites of harder material like this are likely from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.