Vigie Ciel - Fripon network cameras spotted a fireball in northern Italy on January 1. The following day, a big hunt was opened to try to find the fragments of this meteorite, reports Le Parisien .
Thanks to announcements in local media, a cyclist realized that the small blackened and broken in two pebble, which was discovered by his dog, was a fragment of a celestial body. The object was found just 240 meters from the drop point identified by scientists from the participatory meteorite collection network, near Modena in the Po valley (Piedmont).
Le Bolide du 01/01/2020 18:26:54 UT #Italy recorded by Loiano's camera of the prisma network #meteoritehttps: //t.co/5IRL0YMbLm pic.twitter.com/q3NpVpz1TF
- BOAM (@BOAM_meteore) January 5, 2020"Looking for a needle in a haystack"
They are therefore the first meteorite fragments found by the network, which was created on the initiative of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHM) and the Paris Observatory. "It is estimated that ten or so fall each year on French soil, but very few are spotted, because it is like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Jérémie Vaubaillon, astronomer at this observatory. "This time, the miracle happened," he added.
If the scientist speaks of a "miracle", it is because of the difficulty of tracking down meteorite fragments in Europe. The wooded and sometimes volcanic relief makes it difficult to identify these fragments, explains Le Parisien . "If you find a meteorite near you, in a field, please bring it to a museum, don't sell it, don't let it sleep in a closet either," concludes Jérémie Vaubaillon.
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