The Valentine meteorite has been found.
After the warning to the population and the hunt for the fragments of the celestial object (for a total mass of 400-500 grams) activated in recent days in Basilicata, in an area north of Matera, the search has identified the place of the fall .
The meteorite fell vertically to the ground with a speed of about 300 km/h and on impact chipped a tile of the balcony that runs along the perimeter of a house between Contrada Rondinelle and Contrada Serra Paducci, in Matera
.
This was announced by Prisma, the First Italian Meteor and Atmosphere Study Network of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF).
"The discovery took place just three days after the fall - explains Daniele Gardiol, INAF astronomer of Turin and national coordinator of the Prisma network to ANSA - and therefore it is very fresh, uncontaminated material. The meteorites crossed the approximately 4, 5 billion years since the formation of our Solar System and finding one that has just fallen like the one found in Matera helps scientists a lot to reconstruct the stages that led to the formation of planets, including the Earth".
Since 1959, the year in which surveys began using these systems, there have been about 40 discoveries around the world.
This is the second in Italy and after a short time.
At the beginning of January 2020, the Cavezzo meteorite was found near Modena.
