UPDATE: Galactic Analytics LLC will soon transfer its operations to the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Tucson, AZ! If you have an existing annual subscription, it will be honored until it expires. Otherwise, all analyses will be available on a single-event basis. The three-day wait for single-event subscriptions has been eliminated. At the end of a transition period extending through March of 2014 (approximately), all analyses will be openly accessible to the public on PSI’s website! Working with PSI will enable us to train more analysts and examine more meteor events. We will also add outreach activities by PSI scientists at meteorite fall locales, in-house meteorite analytical capabilities at PSI, and will facilitate greater cooperation between scientists, meteorite hunters, hobbyists and the general public. Stay tuned for updates!
This page has been updated to reflect the statement above…
WEATHER RADAR ANALYSIS PAGE
Please register as a user of this website HERE.
The links to the right will take you to analyses of the weather radar data for meteor events. When a major meteor occurs in the United States, Galactic Analytics will retrieve and examine weather radar data and look for signatures of falling meteorites.
To see pictures of meteorites found with the help of Galactic Analytics analyses, click HERE.
If these radar signatures are present, we will post the expected locations of meteorites so you can go there and search. Each page will contain a complete scientific investigation of the meteor with as much data as is available, and will include a Google Earth set of map overlays and other data to help in your search. Here’s an example – a set of Google Earth overlays showing the radar signatures of falling meteorites and the estimated strewn field (a fancy phrase for “meteorite landing area”) from the Sutter’s Mill meteorite fall just east of Sacramento, CA in April of 2012:
See the colored boxes on the ground? Go there to find meteorites. While hunting for meteorites is almost never straightforward, this at least makes it relatively easy to know where to look.
Every year in the US alone, there are several hundred prominent meteors, and many of these produce meteorites. Most of those meteorites are never found because they occur during daylight hours or away from people, and so the Meteoritical Society records only about 5-10 new meteorite falls worldwide every year. However, if these meteorites can be found they are a tremendous boon to science as they produce samples dating from very early in the formation of our Solar System that have not been on Earth long enough to weather significantly. The information posted here will help meteorite hunters, both “professional” and hobbyist alike, to recover some of those falls that would otherwise simply rust away to nothing.
Always ask for permission from the landowner before searching for meteorites. And remember that when you are hunting for meteorites you are a guest in someone else’s home – be courteous and respectful to the locals!
WHAT YOU GET FROM THIS WEBSITE
1) A scientific analysis of weather radar data associated with major meteor events reported around the U.S. Data will be posted ASAP after word of a meteor gets out. If you have a meteor you’d like to point out, send me an email! (chief_scientist@galacticanalytics.com) For every meteor event posted here, an individual web page (links to the right) will be updated until no new information is available.
2) Periodically, a recent, unexamined meteor event will be selected and analyzed in the hope of finding new meteorite falls that have not yet been searched. A meteor event that is reported by media outlets or on meteor reporting websites will be selected if it features a large number of eyewitnesses. Who knows how many undiscovered meteorite falls are out there?
Access to this portion of the website is through one of our subscription services.
– Single Event Subscriptions ($40 per event): This service allows complete access to one meteor event (i.e. one web page).
To subscribe, CLICK HERE!
Good luck and good hunting!
Cheers!
Marc Fries, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, Galactic Analytics LLC
Legal Disclaimer: The data provided on this website does not include a guarantee that meteorites will be found. While all efforts are made to maximize the utility and quality of the data presented, the data represent the aspects of ongoing scientific investigations and cannot, by nature, be guaranteed. By entering this website, the user agrees to hold neither Galactic Analytics LLC nor its associates responsible for monetary loss, property damage or personal injury incurred while utilizing the information presented on this website.
