Scientists Tracked Down a Fallen Meteorite Using Drones and Machine Learning

Scientists tracked down a fallen meteorite using drone footage and machine learning techniques.

In the spring of 2021, scientists detected a bright meteor fireball in the skies above Australia. The following examination showed that fragments of the meteorite could be scattered in an area near Kybo Station in Western Australia. A team of researchers was then deployed to the site with two drones, which were to photograph the landscape with a high-resolution camera.

The resulting images were analyzed by a machine-learning algorithm that can detect unusual objects lying on the ground. It identified the supposed location where the meteorite fragments fell. At that spot, scientists found a 70-gram meteorite.

According to early analysis, the meteorite was far beyond Mars and reached the orbit of Jupiter before falling to Earth. The team now plans to study the composition of the rock in detail using different types of equipment.