A Meteorite Has Hit Abu Dhabi – UAE Space Stations Are On Guard
At 8.15pm on September 30th, a bright fireball is believed to have landed in the Abu Dhabi suburb of Khalifa City A near Al Raha beach.
The speed ball, which was between 1 cm and 3 cm in diametre had been travelling at 23 km per second.
Three meteor detection stations have been set up across the Emirates
The UAE Astronomical Camera Network is designed to track meteors and other falling debris. It is also designed to discover the level of impact a local fall could have.
Where are the stations located?
Named UACN1 and UACN2 (information about the third has yet to be released), one of the stations is located in Al Ain and the other is located in Razeen, which is west of Abu Dhabi.
Both stations managed to capture the meteor as it fell
The meteor was first tracked from 93.4 km above Earth and as it fell to 44.8 km, where the camera caught the biggest flare emitted by the meteor. It was then tailed the whole way down to it’s landing spot in Abu Dhabi. How amazing that these cameras could detect the tiny rock as it moved at such a fast speed. Science is awesome.
It looks like residents have noticed similar happenings before…
#UAE :Small meteor lands in Abu Dhabi @7DAYSUAE https://t.co/VYUOeBQ74x
— Ali Al Shouk (@alialshouk) October 2, 2016
Did anyone just see a meteor or something like that dropped so fast in Abu Dhabi
— Ahmad (@JuventusFanatic) November 20, 2015
Did anyone else just see a huge meteor over #Khalidiya in #AbuDhabi? Or I imagined that ?
— Sanaa Diab (@Sanazolo) October 7, 2016
(Main image credit: John Flannery. Abu Dhabi Meteor not pictured)
