iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Our analytical model is open-source and ready to be applied to future datasets. 💻 You can read the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #Astronomy #MeteorPhysics #MachineLearning #GlobalMeteorNetwork #PlanetaryScience

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

The result is a new classification scheme that easily categorizes everything from the densest iron meteoroids down to the softest cometary material—purely based on easily measured trajectory characteristics already automatically provided in the GMN data! 🪨❄️

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Using observations from the Global Meteor Network, we skipped the usual theoretical assumptions. This enables us to directly probe the physical properties & structure of meteoroids entering the atmosphere without running those computationally heavy models. 🌌

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Usually, figuring out what a meteor is made of means running slow, computationally expensive numerical models. But what if we let the data speak for itself? Led by Sam Hemmelgarn & co-authored with Nick Moskovitz, we developed a purely data-driven ML framework. 🖥️📉

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Thrilled to share that our new paper, "A machine learning approach to meteor classification," has been accepted in Icarus! ☄️ This paper is a result of my collaboration with the amazing team at Lowell Observatory. 🧵👇

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

This historic recovery perfectly highlights the power of our global open-source camera network in empowering citizen scientists to track and recover space rocks. #meteorites #fireballs #citizenscience

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

In an unbelievable combination of precise science and luck, the search team found the 810g Tekapo meteorite within just 15 minutes of stepping onto the field!

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Check out this fantastic video detailing the full story behind this discovery: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qPy...

youtube.com

This Meteorite Discovery Should Have Been Impossible

YouTube video by Out There Learning

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Back in 2024, the regional Global Meteor Network-enabled network, Fireball Aotearoa, tracked a brilliant fireball over New Zealand and we quickly reconstructed its trajectory and computed the meteorite strewn field.

youtube.com

This Meteorite Discovery Should Have Been Impossible

YouTube video by Out There Learning

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

H mag of 11? Wowza! I hope we get some albedo measurements.

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Reposted by Denis Vida

astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

UPDATE on our new interstellar friend #A11pl3Z: Citizen scientist Sam Deen has found earlier observations of from June 25-28, from the ATLAS telescope! Now with 6 days' worth of data, the eccentricity of A11pl3Z's trajectory is narrowed down to e=10.4 ± 1.1! ... that's undoubtedly interstellar. 🔭☄️

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Another handheld video from closer by!

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

The first videos of the #asteroid #C0WEPC5 entry in #Russia are coming out on @telegram. It appears to be very similar to previous asteroid entries (2022 WJ, 2023 CX1, 2024 BX1). Lots of fragments at the end, it probably dropped some rocks in a remote forested area.

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Reposted by Denis Vida

Teddy Kareta @teddykareta.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

for the first time, we were able to compare telescopic observations of an asteroid to later fireball camera observations of it as it burned up -- both techniques agree really well: *2022 WJ1 was the smallest asteroid ever characterized in space*. [woo-hoo!]

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Reposted by Denis Vida

Teddy Kareta @teddykareta.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

out today in the planetary science journal: "Telescope-to-Fireball Characterization of Earth Impactor 2022 WJ1" lead by yours truly. many thanks to my incredible coauthors, especially @meteordoc.bsky.social in the #2 spot, for making this study possible. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

We plan to apply this approach to many more meteors from more showers, enabling us to remotely probe the composition of comets. We also plan to create a catalogue of models for each shower including full fragmentation, enabling the use of these advanced models in the community.

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

These findings are different from what Kikwaya et al. (2011) found (figure below), especially for objects on Jupiter-family orbits. They found very high densities of ~3500 kg/m3, which would make them solid silicates with no porosity, which does not match in situ ROSETTA findings

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

We find that meteoroids from Halley-type comets have bulk densities 200 - 500 kg/m3 (~90% porosity), and shower meteoroids from Jupiter-family comets are only slightly denser at 500-1000 kg/m3. The #Geminids are much denser, ~1400 kg/m3, pointing to carbonaceous composition.

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

The model assumes that cometary meteoroids are composed of small silicate grains and are fluffy, just like dust observed by @ESA_Rosetta and collected in the stratosphere with repurposed U2 spy planes.

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

We have carefully fit a meteor fragmentation model to 41 meteors from meteor showers with known parent bodies to learn about the composition of specific comets. The model accurately reproduces the wake, directly informing the structure of the meteoroid.

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

We use the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory's mirror-tracking system to observe meteors in unprecedented detail, seeing details of fragmentation and wake for each meteor

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

Here is a good first-person account by Ruth: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

"... she heard a large bang and then looked up to find a hole in her ceiling and a fist-sized rock on her bed. Hamilton advised the rock gave off a burnt metallic smell and appears it was the rock that created the hole down through her ceiling." 2021-10-03 at 23:50 MST

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

See our latest paper on the Golden #meteorite in #Canada which fell into a bed, inches away from the head of Ruth Hamilton who was asleep at the time: arxiv.org/abs/2310.17822 #astronomy

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Reposted by Denis Vida

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

Today's space plot: distribution of orbital heights for cataloged objects currently in Low Earth Orbit, by object type (Starlink is offscale high here). X axis is height in km

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

a = 2.512 AU e = 0.6295 i = 11.911 deg peri = 215.044 deg node = 189.219 deg

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

Another tiny ~30 g #meteorite ~100 km south of #Quebec City went into the dense woods near Lac Aylmer. Speed of 17 km/s, 66° entry angle. Observed between 85.4 - 28.7 km. Credit: Robert Veronneau, Michel Saint-Laurent, Guy Létourneau #globalmeteornetwork

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Denis Vida @meteordoc.bsky.social · 04/10/2023

A #fireball dropped a tiny ~20 g #meteorite some 100 km SW of #Perth, #Australia. It entered the atmosphere at a slow speed of 13.5 km/s, 60° entry angle. It was first observed at a height of 82.6 km and its terminal height was 30.7 km. Credit: Dave Rollinson #globalmeteornetwork

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