BREAKING: Meteorite Madness!
A team of scientists has confirmed that the blazing fireball that lit up the skies over St Francis Bay a few weeks ago was, in fact, a meteorite – and not just any meteorite, but a rare and potentially explosive achondrite!
The bolide, which was initially suspected to be a satellite, entered Earth’s atmosphere at a whopping 72,000 km/h and exploded over the Indian Ocean, sending shockwaves across the country. But what’s even more astonishing is that fragments of the meteorite have been found in Kirkwood, and scientists are scrambling to study them.
According to Deon van Niekerk of the electron microscopy unit at Rhodes University, the meteorite broke down when it hit the ground, but the fragments are still replete with secrets. "We can make a preliminary conclusion that these are fragments of a howardite eucrite diogenite meteorite," he said, sounding like a space-age detective.
But what does it all mean? For starters, the meteorite is a rare type called an achondrite, which is estimated to make up only 1% of all meteorites. And get this – it’s believed to have originated from a massive asteroid called Vestra, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The scientists are still trying to find more fragments and study the meteorite’s composition, but the preliminary findings are already sending shockwaves through the scientific community. As Prof Roger Gibson of the School of Geosciences at Wits University warned, "These objects pose a real threat to life on Earth, and we’re not even close to being able to detect them regularly."
So, the next time you see a blazing fireball streaking across the sky, remember – it could be a meteorite, and it could change everything!