Fireballs Aotearoa

"Wow! I've seen a fireball above NZ. Who should I tell?" Report it at fireballs.nz. We collate views, calculate it's trajectory and assess whether there may be any #nzmeteorites.

@WarrantyViolatr Thanks Marc! That means a lot coming from you.

@FireballsNZ Huge congratulations!!

We're so happy to have found this rock - NZ's tenth #meteorite and our first camera-assisted find stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350220…

@superparsec Yep but we think "Dunedin" is probably a bit of something else, maybe something traded in the 1920s, so we'll try to get it removed from database over the next year or so.

@FireballsNZ Meteoritical Bulletin Database already lists 10 meteorites from New Zeeland, before this new discovery, so this would make this one the 11th?

Close-up views of New Zealand's latest #meteorite - found by a search party today after falling last Wednesday 13th.

Finding a #meteorite in #LOTR country - we were looking for one precious thing in the landscape where the #LOTR films were made two decades ago: rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

We found a #meteorite! Read about it here (parental advisory on antipodean vernacular): rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

The @FireballsNZ and #globalmeteornetwork cameras have detected meteors from a new #meteor shower produced by #comet 46P/Wirtanen! Although it had low activity (ZHR <= 5), it occurred exactly where and when it was predicted.

If you want to catch #meteors like this, please join Fireballs Aotearoa by searching for our website and clicking on "get a camera".

Peter McKellar caught this "Earthgrazer" #meteor off the coast near Mt Maunganui at 2:10 am last night. 100km up and moving at 70km/sec, it would have been a real sight from the beach.

"Earthgrazers" are meteors that almost miss the Earth - they hit the top of the atmosphere, get thoroughly toasted then continue back out into space. No #meteorites from this one, it's back out there in an altered orbit.

An amazing display of sprites captured last night over the #Fiordland National Park in #NewZealand. @FireballsNZ #globalmeteornetwork #redsprites #tle #lightning #timelapse Credit: Jim Cheetham

Meteor shower season is here! The next few weeks are the best time of year to be observing #meteors (unless you like the cold during the Geminids). Here is a night of detections from a #globalmeteornetwork camera in #NewZealand. Via @FireballsNZ Credit: Craig Young

4/4 Calculations by Jesse Stayte and James Scott. Report🔥 fireballs🔥 here: fireballs.nz

3/4 The fireball's trajectory indicates it originated from the asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, and was likely a remnant of the early solar system. Image - Green (orbital trajectory), red (Mars), brown (Jupiter).

🔥#Otago/#Southland Fireball Update🔥 1/4 Data for the #fireball at 20:39 24-07-23 is in: The ☄small ~100gm rock ☄was first detected at 55km above Earth's surface travelling at 20km/s! It was captured through to 31km at 5km/s.

Image above is of the #fireball burning through sky at 20:39 24-07-23, captured on one of our cameras in #Dunedin

🔥Otago/Southland Fireball🔥 A large #meteor was captured on our camera network at 8:40pm last night over the #Otago/#Southland region☄We're assessing our data to determine if this may have dropped a #meteorite! Did you see it? Report it here: fireballs.nz

2/2 We're assessing our data to determine if this was a meteor and whether it may have dropped some material in the region!! 🔥

🔥MANAWATŪ EVENT🔥 1/2 We're getting reports of a bright object shooting over the Manawatū region just before 0700 this morning🔥☄ Did you see the event? Do you have security camera footage? 🔥Report it here: fireballs.nz/report/ 🔥