FireBallsinTheSky:線上隕石科技網是一個由澳大利亞科廷大學創辦的致力於外太空隕石的科技網站,分享太空中的隕石執行軌跡,隕石攝影圖片,隕石研究等相關的科技資料資料。
該應用程式使用的感測器來獲取資料並使用智慧手機來記錄所有細節,當你仰望星空的時候突然發現有流星雨的時候,你可以使用這款手機應用記錄下來,該應用會自動識別你所在的位置、高度以及流星的方位,使用者也可以添加當時情景的亮度、色彩、速度等相關資訊,把這些寶貴的資料提交給科廷科技大學的科學家和工程師們,幫助他們獲取有關於流星的寶貴資料。
當然你的行動是有回報的,通過該應用程式你可以獲得最新的實地考察資料還有珍貴的圖片,這些圖片都是非常珍貴的高清影象,都是通過高清攝影裝置獲取的,有了這款手機應用只要你拍攝到了流星的資訊,它就可以跟蹤你的拍攝資訊,該團隊可以計算出它來自何處,併發送回資訊給你。太空中的流星專案是一個所有人類的科學專案,讓公眾進行合作並參與討論。
Meteorites are the oldest rocks in existence: the only surviving physical record of the formation and evolution of the solar system. They sample hundreds of different heavenly bodies. Potentially, meteorites offer a direct route to understanding our origins. But to decode that record we need to know where they come from. The Desert Fireball Network (or DFN for short) is designed to provide that data.
Meteorites generate a fireball as they come through the atmosphere – you may even have seen one of these yourself. The DFN is a network of digital cameras in the outback desert of Australia which capture photographs of the night sky. By making networked observations of the fireball we can triangulate its trajectory, track the rock forward to where it lands, and back, to where it came from in the solar system.
More and more cameras are being added to the DFN as the project expands. The final network will image the night sky over roughly one-third of Australia, and track whatever is coming through the atmosphere. DFN researchers will then go out and recover the meteorite. Knowing where the meteorite came from, and what it is made of, will help us to address some of the biggest questions in planetary science: how our planetary system came into being, and how dust and gas produced a planet capable of supporting life – our Earth.
Fireballs in the Sky is a citizen science initiative that will allow the public to share the discoveries of the Desert Fireball Network. By 2014 the website will deliver images from all our cameras, results, and blogs from the field, so that you can see a research project as it happens, provide your own data, and experience the highs (and the occasional lows) as we experience them. Watch this space!