There was a meteorite warning in southern Italy.
Parts of it hit a balcony.
It should be a special find for those who find it.
Matera – With a loud bang, a piece of a meteorite hit a balcony in southern Italy.
Residents in the Matera region were warned beforehand.
The celestial body was sighted on Valentine's Day.
He is said to have had a speed of 300 kilometers per hour on impact.
Only one floor tile was destroyed, but the find should be special for the brothers.
Loud impact in southern Italy: brothers find meteorite parts
The Valentine's Day meteorite: The story about the impact is probably not as romantic as its nickname - but exciting for the finders.
On February 14, the meteorite was sighted crossing the sky over the southern regions of Puglia and Basilicata.
Astronomers calculated its trajectory and quickly found that it would land near Matera in Basilicata.
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Two brothers found this part of the meteorite on their parents' balcony in southern Italy.
© Screenshot Prisma/INAF
A day later, a warning was issued to the population.
According to
Prisma
, an Italian network for monitoring meteorites, it was brothers Gianfranco and Pino Losignore who found the meteorite parts on their parents' balcony.
Those had previously told of a loud bang.
On impact, the part of the meteorite damaged a balcony tile.
Amateur astronomers in southern Italy: The brothers immediately realized that it wasn't road debris
According to a report by the
Ansa
news agency, the brothers Gianfranco and Pino Losignore are amateur astronomers.
So they would have recognized immediately that it wasn't rubble that the wind might have blown onto their parents' balcony.
"Had it not been for our curiosity, we might have just swept that off the balcony and nothing would have been saved," the brothers said, according to the Ansa agency.
Now the finds are to be analyzed scientifically.
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On impact, the meteor only damaged a tile on the balcony.
70 grams of the rock have been found so far.
© Screenshot Prisma/INAF
The find on the parents' balcony should not remain the only one of the meteorite.
According to media reports, it had a total weight of 400 to 500 grams. According to Prisma
, 70 grams of material were found
in twelve larger pieces and dozens of small fragments on the balcony.
The search for more finds continues.
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There are always meteorite impacts on earth, like in 2013 in Russia.
How devastating the consequences are depends heavily on its size and material.
Most meteorites are no bigger than a pebble and are therefore harmless, according to the
University of California.
However, finding the celestial bodies is usually special for researchers.
Just at the beginning of the year, scientists in the Arctic made an extremely rare find - the meteorite weighed 7.6 kilos.
Also, will an asteroid hit Earth in 2023?
NASA made a new discovery.
(chd/dpa)
List of rubrics: © Screenshot Prisma/INAF
