Scientists try to recover the first meteorite at sea

On March 7 this year, a brilliant meteorite fall ( called a racing car) was observed. 25 miles (25 kilometers) off Grays Harbor County, Washington.

Ocean Exploration Trust works with scientists from the National Marine Sanctuary of the Olympic Coast, NASA and the University of Washington to locate the meteorites fall. You can follow their mission live here: http://www.nautiluslive.org.

The exploration vessel Nautilus mapped an ocean area of ​​0.4 square mile (1 square kilometer), which is excavated by remotely controlled submarines, called Hercules and Argus. If these robotic submarines find anything, it will be great news – the first known recovery of a meteorite from the ocean.

A dive occurred yesterday (July 2nd), from about 12 o'clock. at 7 pm EDT (4:00 pm to 11:00 pm GMT, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Washington local time), members of the mission team said in an update. You can learn more about meteorite hunting, which runs until Wednesday, July 4th in this video.

An badysis of NASA's cosmic dust conservator, Marc Fries, who is aboard Nautilus for the expedition, indicates that this fall contained about two tons of meteorites. Fries estimates that at the fall site of the largest meteorite, there may be two to three meteorites for every 10 square meters of seabed.

Support for this expedition comes from the Office of Oceanographic Exploration and Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Ocean Exploration Trust and the National Geographic Society

Leonard David is the author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet". The book is a companion to the National Geographic series "Mars." A long-time writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for over five decades. us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+ This version of the story published on Space.com.