'Meteorite lands near Stoke-on-Trent' as fireball flies over

Rob Andrews

16 May 2024 at 8:28 am·2-min read

Meteorites likely 'landed near Stoke-on-Trent' when a bright fireball passed overhead. Scientists have recorded the fireball which passed over the UK in the early hours of Monday, May 6.

It is likely to have dropped meteorites to the south-east of Stoke-on-Trent - in the areas of Rough Close, Tean, Blythe Bridge and Freehay. Now The UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) wants to hear from anyone who has found dark rocks in the past week.

UKFAll is a collaboration of camera networks that aims to record meteors and fireballs and recover freshly-fallen meteorites in the UK. It is three years ago since a meteorite was discovered in the Cotswolds.

Dr Luke Daly, from UKFAll, said: “Meteorites are rocks that naturally arrive on Earth from space and can be studied to understand how planets and the solar system formed. Our cameras tracked the fireball as one of these rocks entered the atmosphere at 4am last Monday morning and we estimate that maybe 500g of meteorite landed near Stoke-on- Trent. If you’re in the local area and have found any dark-looking rocks in the last week, we want to hear from you."

Colleague Doctor Ashley King added: “The meteorite won’t be hot and is safe to handle although, if possible, please don’t pick it up with bare hands as that will contaminate the rock. It’s probably a glossy black or brown colour or may have a glassy outer surface and may be in a place where rocks aren’t usually found, such as on a lawn or footpath. We don’t want anyone taking risks looking for it or going into areas where you shouldn’t. But if you do find something out-of-place, we’ll definitely be interested to check it out.”

If you find one of the meteorites, click here.

If you're on the lookout for local news, we have you covered with our FREE email newsletter - sign up in the box at the top of this story or click here.

The Independent
Stranded Boeing astronauts are stuck on International Space Station, Nasa says in urgent update
The astronauts stranded on the International Space Station are still not able to come home, Nasa has said. Two astronauts went to the space station almost 50 days ago as part of a test of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing‘s new Starliner capsule prompted Nasa and Boeing to keep them up longer.
Futurism
Terrifying NASA Video Shows America Spewing CO2 Into Atmosphere
Trapped Gases NASA has released a new visualization that shows copious amounts of carbon dioxide swirling around the Earth's atmosphere. The video shows how concentrations of the gas move across the planet, driven by wind and atmospheric circulation, from January through March 2020. The level of detail is truly astonishing, allowing us to "zoom in […]
Futurism
Astronaut Shows Photo He Shot in Space That Would Be Impossible to Take Now
Pinpoint Stars In 2003, when the International Space Station was a mere three years old, NASA astronaut Donald Pettit took a gorgeous picture of the Earth's atmosphere, with countless stars frozen in time in the background. But as Pettit revealed in a Reddit post earlier this week, the same photo "cannot be taken anymore" — […]
AFP
NASA Mars rover captures rock that could hold fossilized microbes
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has made what could be its most astonishing discovery to date: possible signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.The quest to confirm ancient Martian life is far from over, however.
The Guardian
Nasa rover discovery hints at ancient microbial life on Mars
A 3ft by 2ft rock marked with off-white spots may offer fossilised record of microbes dating back billions of years
CNN
Boeing, NASA may have found ‘root cause’ of Starliner spacecraft’s issues, but astronauts are still in limbo
After weeks of testing, NASA and Boeing officials say they better understand the issues plaguing the Starliner spacecraft, but still aren’t ready to name a return date.
Business Insider
Rats, roaches, and other creatures are winning against climate change, and it's bad news for humans
In the game of climate change, there are winners and losers. These four animals will come out on top, but you probably won't be happy about it.
Futurism
NASA Rocket for First Crewed Moon Mission Since Apollo Arrives at Launch Site
The rocket designed to carry the first humans to the Moon in over half a century has officially made its way to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) just over a year ahead of its tentative launch date. The enormous, 212-foot rocket stage made its way from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to […]
HowStuffWorks
Is Africa Splitting in Two? Really? Here's the Scoop
The notion of Africa splitting has the attention scientists and geologists worldwide, as the Great Rift Valley stretches and tears at the Earth's crust.
Time
CERN Science Gateway: World's Greatest Places 2024
Find out why CERN Science Gateway is one of the World's Greatest Places 2024
Business Insider
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are arguing again with their rival rocket companies. It's the latest in a 20-year feud.
The two execs have sparred over their respective space ambitions — Musk runs SpaceX, while Bezos owns Blue Origin — but it hasn't stopped there.
Dorset Echo
Seven year old boy makes rare fossil discovery at Dorset festival
James, from Wareham in Dorset, found a rare mammal tooth in sand brought for the Natural History Museum activities at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.
The Guardian
Irish museum solves mystery of bronze age axe heads delivered in porridge box
Artefacts sent by farmer, who made the ‘absolutely mad’ discovery while cutting silage
Futurism
When AI Is Trained With AI-Generated Data, It Starts Spouting Gibberish
What happens when you feed AI-generated content back into an AI model? Put simply: absolute chaos. A fascinating new study published in the journal Nature shows that AI models trained on AI-generated material will quickly experience rapid "model collapse." Basically, as an AI model cannibalizes AI-generated data, that AI model's outputs become increasingly bizarre, garbled, […]
Futurism
NASA Says Its Rover Has Discovered a "Potential Biosignature" on Mars
Mighty Likely NASA's Perseverance Rover has found a rock on Mars that scientists believe may contain signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. As the New York Times reports, NASA researchers aren't quite ready to declare that they've found definitive biosignatures — the scientific term for "signs of life" — in the piece of ancient […]
Futurism
Scientists Outraged at Canceled NASA Moon Mission Plead Congress to Reconsider
Last week, NASA made a shocking announcement. It would not be sending its $450 million rover, called the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to the Moon, where its state of the art capabilities were anticipated to uncover secrets about water ice just beneath the lunar surface. The reason, according to NASA officials, is that […]
The Telegraph
Nasa finds Mars rock that may have hosted tiny lifeforms
A rock on Mars may have hosted microscopic life billions of years ago, Nasa believes.
Northwich & Winsford Guardian
Primary school 'nurturing the scientists of tomorrow’ earns prestigious award
A SCHOOL is celebrating earning a prestigious award.
The Telegraph
Everything you need to know about La Niña, the climate phenomenon behind this year’s extreme weather
For months the world endured droughts, heat waves, floods and cyclones as one of the strongest El Niño events on record brought chaos to global weather systems.
PA Media: UK News
Rollout of payment schemes causing ‘widespread uncertainty’ for farmers – report
The changes have come at a time when extreme weather, market conditions and sudden rises in input costs are putting farms under immense pressure.

Latest stories