France’s ranks of amateur astronomers are being asked to find an apricot-sized meteorite that fell on Earth last weekend in the southwest of the country.
The rock, which weighs an estimated 150 grams, was captured by cameras at an astronomy training facility in Mauraux, and landed at exactly 22.43 hours near Aiguillon, about 100 km from Bordeaux. .
The site is part of the Vigie-Ciel (Sky Watch) project of about 100 cameras in the Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON), which aims to track down the ten or so meteorites that fall on France each year. to track and collect.
“Meteorites are remnants of the creation of the solar system, with the benefit of never being exposed to the elements,” said Mickael Wilmart of the A Ciel Ouvert (Open Sky) Astronomy Education Association, which operates the Mauraux Observatory.
“A fresh meteorite like this, which fell a few days ago, has not been altered by the Earth’s environment and therefore contains a lot of valuable information for scientists,” he said.
The search is already underway, but calls for help have been issued on social media and posters have been put up in areas where the rock is likely to have fallen.
But Wilmart acknowledged that the chances of success were slim.
“It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said. “We really trust that people will look in their gardens or along the road, they might just stumble upon this rock that so desperately wants to be.”