Scientists Unveil Meteorite in South Africa

South African scientists unveiled a meteorite that fell over the Eastern Cape province last month, describing it as a motorcycle-sized bolide. Residents in the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Free State reported seeing a blue-white and orange streak of light in the sky on August 25, which was accompanied by an explosive sound and ground tremors, the scientists said.

The rare meteorite fragment weighing less than 90g with a diameter of less than 5 cm was provisionally named the "Nqweba Meteorite", naming it after the town of its discovery.

Roger Gibson, a University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Geosciences Professor told a news conference that "friction with the atmosphere created a spectacular fireball and caused it to break up in flight," which created an explosion like sound called a sonic boom as it split into several small fragments called meteorites.

“So what we see in this process is a series of parts of the original body, slowly drifting apart, flaring and then going out. And that's when they slow down enough that they are no longer being heated up by friction. They enter a dark flight,” he added.

Nine-year-old girl Eli-zé du Toit said while playing at her grandparents' home in Nqweba, she saw a black and shiny rock on the outside with a light gray, concrete-like interior, fall from the sky. She picked it up and gave it to her mother, who later handed it over to scientists.

The scientists, who are from Wits, Nelson Mandela University, and Rhodes University said in a statement released after the news conference that "the Nqweba Meteorite is believed to be an achondrite meteorite, specifically a rare type within the Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite group."