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A researcher holds a meteorite fragment during a press conference in Gqeberha, South Africa, on September 3, 2024, where researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, Nelson Mandela University and Rhodes University report on the entry of a meteorite into Earth’s atmosphere over South Africa last week. Photo Credit: Reuters.
South African scientists on Tuesday (August 3, 2024) discovered a motorcycle-sized fragment of a meteorite they discovered last month in a town in the country’s Eastern Cape province.
Scientists reported that residents in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Free State provinces saw bright blue-white and orange lights in the sky on August 25, accompanied by explosive sounds and vibrations.
The rare meteorite fragment — which is black and shiny on the outside and a light gray, concrete-like inside — weighs less than 90 grams (3.2 ounces) and measures less than 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter and has been provisionally named the Nkweba meteorite, after the nearby town where it was discovered.
“Friction with the atmosphere caused a spectacular fireball to form and it broke up in flight,” Professor Roger Gibson, from the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), told a press conference.
Sitting on her grandparents’ veranda in Nkweba, 9-year-old Ellie-Zay du Toit saw a black rock fall from the sky. She picked it up and gave it to her mother, who then handed it over to scientists.
“I just heard this rumbling noise. And then I saw this rock fall from the sky and then I went to pick it up and it was still hot,” du Toit said.
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