Meteor hunt by scientists and amateur astronomers in Tuscan countryside – Corriere.it

It started after a short lesson on how astronomers find a lost meteor hunt and not touch it completely alien. Then, about fifty people split into five groups and began patrolling inch by inch, and the area where the piece landed in the “comb” system, A village about ten kilometers long and two kilometers wide between Oste and Luciano, Prato and Pistoia provinces. Nothing but a few black stones, a piece of rusty iron and a pair of horns were found from the unidentified animal. “But The research will continue on Sunday and the following days. Video cameras have detected it, the meteorite, and we hope it’s not wrong with us, ”said Alex Masanti, advertising graphic designer and head of the Montelopo Astrophilic Group.

A research that brings together scientists and researchers (Among them is the former spin-off of the University of Pisa in collaboration with Frederico Bernardi, director of the Museum of Planetary Sciences of the Proto-Marco Morelli, University of Florence Diberio Coupon, and astronomer of space dice, FISAGIO with Isa) At 3 a.m. it rained with a glowing path in Tuscany’s sky and indestructible by Prisma’s cameras, integrated by the Italian surveillance network Tour’s INAF, with 60 cameras targeting the cosmos.

Asteroid rain in our atmosphere, The same subject matter of San Lorenzo’s shooting stars, It should weigh about fifty grams and be about two centimeters in diameter. Why this interest in burnt pebbles? “Because it can tell us a page in the history of our universe,” explains now-retired former banker Maura Dombelli, the Italian amateur astronomer who discovered more asteroids and co-founded the Astronomical Laboratory and Piero Angela with the Montelubo municipality. Maura will also take part in the research in the coming days. That pebble from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars – the amateur astronomer explains – will tell us many stories. It may have been formed by iridium, a large asteroid that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. Or it will hide secrets we do not know. “

The important thing is that it is not contaminated with human skin. That’s why researchers and scientists have provided teams with containers and gloves, otherwise the analyzes will be distorted. “I asked the locals to check the vegetable gardens and nurseries and, if possible, to see the large roofs of the farms. With great care, without touching anything,” says Marco Morelli, director of the Planetary Museum of Planetary Science in Prato. A passion for the stars. “It’s a wonderful experience – he says – that combines passion, science and technology. An application connected to the GPS (satellite system) tracks our route and maps the area we explored, so we know where to proceed in the next few days. Paolo Finney, 54, a metalwork engineer, says: “When you entered a museum hoping to find the treasure in front of you, it was exciting. Today we have not found, but it will be time to identify. Then let him talk. “