(meteorobs) Scientists venture to Nullarbor to track meteorites

Fri Dec 2 16:46:05 EST 2005

>From ABC News Online

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1521534.htm

An international team of scientists has begun installing meteorite
tracking cameras on the Nullarbor, in south-eastern Western Australia,
in an attempt to learn more about the universe.

For the past two years the team has successfully recorded material
falling from the sky at a site just outside Kalgoorlie-Boulder, using a
highly sophisticated camera.

The success of the trial has prompted the scientists, from Britain,
Czechoslovakia and Australia, to install permanent cameras at three
remote pastoral stations on the Nullarbor.

Phil Bland from the Imperial College of London says tracking meteorites
could help unlock some of the mysteries of the universe.

"With meteorites, we've got a random bag of rocks and what we're trying
to do is work out where those different rocks come from, if we get that,
it should help us work out how planets were formed, how the solar system
came together and also how you make planets generally out in the
universe," he said.