High-Tech Eyeball On Lookout For Fireballs

MUSEUM ROOF CAMERA JOINS UK NETWORK SCANNING THE SKIES FOR METEORITE FALLS

- DALE SPRIDGEON

AN Anglesey museum which is used to dealing with ancient history is now turning its attention to objects billions of years old blazing their way across the Welsh sky. Special high tech camera equipment has been placed on the island's councilrun Oriel Mon museum and arts centre in Llangefni which is helping to gather research about meteorites.

It is one of three in Wales, including one in Aberystwyth and another in Cardiff. A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal fragment that falls to earth from space. Meteoroids are rocks that still are in space, and range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, but when meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or 'shooting stars' are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's then called a meteorite.