Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Industry and Business News .




DEEP IMPACT
Smartphone app can help track, identify meteors falling to Earth
by Staff Writers
Perth, Australia (UPI) Nov 28, 2013


disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

A smartphone app can track meteors as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, sending information back to users about their sightings, its Australian developers say.

Developed by a team at Curtin University, the app called Fireballs in the Sky can return details on what created the fireball and where it came from in the solar system.

App users are asked to point at the sky where they think the fireball started and click on their phones, then do the same for where they think it ended.

Created by the Desert Fireball Network, a Curtin University project designed to track meteorites as they fall to Earth by capturing meteors and fireballs on camera, the app can be used from anywhere in the world, its developers said.

"If we get enough observations we can determine a trajectory and send that information back to you -- for instance, you might get a message that the rock that made your fireball came from the outer asteroid belt, or that it was a chunk of a comet," team member Phil Bland told the BBC.

Using a phone's accelerometer, GPS and compass, the app can provide enough data to be used to create a crowdsourced smartphone fireball network, he said.

"Essentially, members of the public can help us track anything that's coming through the atmosphere."

.


Related Links
Asteroid and Comet Impact Danger To Earth - News and Science






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








DEEP IMPACT
First study of Russian meteor
Davis CA (SPX) Nov 07, 2013
The meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February 2013 was "a wake-up call," according to a University of California, Davis scientist who participated in analyzing the event. The work is published Nov. 7 in the journal Science by an international team of researchers. "If humanity does not want to go the way of the dinosaurs, we need to study an event like this in detail," said ... read more


DEEP IMPACT
Crippled space telescope given second life, new mission

Scientists create perfect solution to iron out kinks in surfaces

What might recyclable satellites look like?

Overcoming Brittleness: New Insights into Bulk Metallic Glass

DEEP IMPACT
Boeing Tests Validate Performance of FAB-T Satellite Communications Program

Intelsat General To Provide Satellite Services To US Marines

Manpack Radios in Arctic Connect with MUOS Satellites Orbiting Equator

Self-correcting crystal may unleash the next generation of advanced communications

DEEP IMPACT
Second rocket launch site depends on satellite size, cost-benefit

Private US launch of satellite delayed

Stepping up Vega launcher production

Czech and XCOR Sign Payload Integrator Agreement for Suborbital Flights

DEEP IMPACT
CIA, Pentagon trying to hinder construction of GLONASS stations in US

GPS 3 Prototype Communicates With GPS Constellation

Russia to enforce GLONASS Over GPS

How pigeons may smell their way home

DEEP IMPACT
US telling airlines to stay safe in East China Sea

The secrets of owls' near noiseless wings

Japanese airlines say will obey China's air zone rules

Peru boosts defense with tactical aircraft, helos

DEEP IMPACT
Chips meet Tubes: World's First Terahertz Vacuum Amplifier

NIST demonstrates how losing information can benefit quantum computing

Chaotic physics in ferroelectrics hints at brain-like computing

Nature: Single-atom Bit Forms Smallest Memory in the World

DEEP IMPACT
Cameras for high-res images of Earth's surface on way to space station

LETI Magnetometers Will Expand Understanding of Magnetic Field

Satellites to probe Earth's strange shield

Free access to Copernicus Sentinel satellite data

DEEP IMPACT
Madrid street-sweepers call off strike: union

Everyday chemical exposure linked to preterm births

Albania refuses to host Syria arsenal destruction

Protests grow in Albania against Syria weapons destruction




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement