Knocknacarra eyewitnesses urged to help find meteorite

Date Published: 29-Nov-2010

By Denise McNamara

Any Galwegians who spotted the spectacular fireball across clear skies on Sunday evening are urged to report the sighting to Astronomy Ireland in order to pinpoint the location of any possible meteorite landing.

Reports of the space rock gliding through the stars lit up the phone lines of Astronomy Ireland at 5.40pm and early indications are that it occurred in the northern part of the country. Several people in Knocknacarra reported seeing the rare phenomenon as air temperatures fell to minus 6 degrees.

Curiously, it was same time as the details of the bailout were announced and the same date in 1999 when the last meteorite definitely landed on the country.

However Astronomy Ireland will not get a likely location until they collate all the sightings and fix on an average intersection point.

This gives a “pretty accurate” indication of where a meteorite would have fallen, according to the spokesman David Moore. “The last time a meteorite was found in Ireland was 1999 and based on hundreds of reports, we predicted it fell over Carlow. Sure enough it was found at Leighlin Bridge and the lady who found it sold the pieces which weighed 280g to a collector for £3,000.

“Once the collector had confirmation it was from space, he was offering it online for $500 a gram.”

Most fireballs probably come from pieces smashed off asteroids as the result of something colliding with an asteroid millions of years ago.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel