Ga naar hoofdinhoud

Centrefold

Meteorites

Text: Dorine van Gorp

In 2017 a meteorite fell through the roof of a barn in Broek in Waterland. It’s Dr Sebastiaan de Vet’s favourite of his Meteorites Lab collection, an online 3D collection of meteorites, non-meteorites and impactites. De Vet (Aerospace Engineering) was able to preserve the Broek meteorite in its original condition and one of his students made a 3D print of it. Its aerodynamic properties were tested in the wind tunnel. You can use that knowledge to calculate where a meteorite will end up. “Every two years, a fireball is observed above the Netherlands that could produce a meteorite,” explains De Vet. “Yet only six meteorites have been found since 1840.” De Vet had already started virtually documenting Dutch meteorites and developed his 3D models of other meteorites for use in teaching. He discovered that the collection has the potential to provide important insights into the origins of the solar system. “Meteorites are the fossils of the solar system,” he says. “They contain information about the geological composition of planetoids and can teach us a lot about what happened 4.5 billion years ago.” The information is also useful for satellite missions. “Take the Ellemeet meteorite. In 1925, a farmer in Zeeland found a piece of rock in his field after a loud bang. Researchers have been able to link it to the planetoid Vesta.”

delftmeteoritelab.nl

© Montage: Ontwerpwerk
Photo’s: Delft Meteorite Lab | Pobytov

Meteorites

Text Dorine van Gorp

In 2017 a meteorite fell through the roof of a barn in Broek in Waterland. It’s Dr Sebastiaan de Vet’s favourite of his Meteorites Lab collection, an online 3D collection of meteorites, non-meteorites and impactites. De Vet (Aerospace Engineering) was able to preserve the Broek meteorite in its original condition and one of his students made a 3D print of it. Its aerodynamic properties were tested in the wind tunnel. You can use that knowledge to calculate where a meteorite will end up. “Every two years, a fireball is observed above the Netherlands that could produce a meteorite,” explains De Vet. “Yet only six meteorites have been found since 1840.” De Vet had already started virtually documenting Dutch meteorites and developed his 3D models of other meteorites for use in teaching. He discovered that the collection has the potential to provide important insights into the origins of the solar system. “Meteorites are the fossils of the solar system,” he says. “They contain information about the geological composition of planetoids and can teach us a lot about what happened 4.5 billion years ago.” The information is also useful for satellite missions. “Take the Ellemeet meteorite. In 1925, a farmer in Zeeland found a piece of rock in his field after a loud bang. Researchers have been able to link it to the planetoid Vesta.”

delftmeteoritelab.nl

© Montage: Ontwerpwerk
Photo’s: Delft Meteorite Lab | Pobytov