Meteorite hunters: Scientists are looking for remnants of huge space rocks off the coast of Washington



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  Image File Image - (iStock / solarseven)

Image File Image File – (iStock / solarseven)

(James Thew)

A team of scientists scans the depths of the Pacific Ocean to find fragments of a huge meteor.

The research vessel E / V Nautilus will attempt to find the remains of a meteor that has crossed the skies of the Pacific Northwest. March 7, 2018 before hitting the ocean. According to the American Meteor Society, the meteor was visible in parts of the state of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

Marc Fries, conservative of NASA's cosmic dust, said the meteor was about the size of a golf cart. According to Fries, about 2 metric tons of meteorite fragments are now on the bottom of the sea. According to him, the "meteorite fall" is the largest he has seen in 21 years of radar data.

DISCOVERING DIAMONDS IN SPACE: MYSTERIOUS METEORITE COMING FROM THE LOST PLANET

The breaking space rock hit the ocean in the National Marine Sanctuary of the NOAA Olympic Coast at about 15.5 miles from the Washington Coast

  MeteoriteWashington

Trust / Data courtesy of Dr. Marc Fries, NASA)

The Ocean Exploration Trust works with experts from the National Marine Sanctuary of the Olympic Coast, NASA and the University of Washington to locate the site of the meteorite fall. E / V Nautilus maps an area of ​​about 0.4 square miles. Underwater drones will be used to search the area and recover the fragments found. The search will be broadcast live from 12:00. ET and 7 pm ET.

If pieces of the space rock are successfully recovered from the seabed, this will be the first known recovery of a meteorite from the ocean, says the Ocean Exploration Trust. "If found, the meteorite fragments will be shipped to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC and will be part of their research collections," he said in a statement.

AN ASTEROID RUNS IN A BLAZING FIREBALL ON AFRIQUE LAST WEEKEND

In January, a meteor made headlines when it crossed the sky into Michigan. The flaming fireball sent meteorites rushing to find fragments of the rare space rock.

In 2013, an 11,000-tonne meteor exploded on Chelyabinsk, Russia, the largest object to reach Earth. NASA has opened a new office to track asteroids and comets that approach too close to the Earth, known as the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The PDCO formalizes the agency's existing program for the detection and tracking of near-Earth objects that NASA has been studying since the 1970s.

NASA has already said that there were more than 18,300 objects Recorded near-Earths and just over 8,000 government agencies note that large rock objects orbiting the Sun are known as asteroids or minor planets, while smaller particles are known as meteorites. . When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of the Earth, it is known as a meteor. The debris recovered from meteorites is called meteorites.

METEOR HUNTERS: SCIENTISTS COMMIT TO DISCOVER THE ANTARCTIC FOR RARE SPACE ROCKS

In addition to his scientific research, E / V Nautilus also captured images d & # 39; wreck. Last year, one of the submarine drones of the ship showed the wreck of the submarine USS Bugara of World War II

In 2016, scientists used robots under – E / V Nautilus' ships to capture incredible images of the light aircraft carrier USS Independence, which was deliberately sunk off California in 1951.

Fox News & Chris Ciaccia contributed to this story. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

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