0000000000134432
AUTHOR
N. Pugno
Cavezzo, the first Italian meteorite recovered by the PRISMA fireball network. Orbit, trajectory, and strewn-field
ABSTRACT Two meteorite pieces have been recovered in Italy, near the town of Cavezzo (Modena), on 2020 January 4th. The associated fireball was observed on the evening of New Year’s Day 2020 by eight all-sky cameras of the PRISMA fireball network, a partner of FRIPON. The computed trajectory had an inclination angle of approximately 68° and a velocity at infinity of 12.8 km s−1. Together with the relatively low terminal height, estimated as 21.5 km, those values were indicating the significant possibility of a meteorite dropping event, as additionally confirmed by the non-zero residual total mass. The strewn-field was computed taking into account the presence of two bright light flashes, re…
FRIPON: a worldwide network to track incoming meteoroids
Context. Until recently, camera networks designed for monitoring fireballs worldwide were not fully automated, implying that in case of a meteorite fall, the recovery campaign was rarely immediate. This was an important limiting factor as the most fragile - hence precious - meteorites must be recovered rapidly to avoid their alteration. Aims. The Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON) scientific project was designed to overcome this limitation. This network comprises a fully automated camera and radio network deployed over a significant fraction of western Europe and a small fraction of Canada. As of today, it consists of 150 cameras and 25 European radio receiver…
An optimised tapered shape of the terminal contact elements in biological attachment devices
Many biological attachment devices of insects, spiders and geckoes consist of arrays of hairs (setae), which are terminated by contact elements of different shapes. However, the most frequently observed shape is a thin plate-like spatula. In spite of a rather wide range of sizes and thicknesses, most spatulae of different animals are not uniform but possess a gradient in thickness. The thickness of spatulae in the longitudinal section becomes gradually thinner close to the tip. This geometrical effect is numerically explained in the present paper, by using a numerical approach for modeling the van der Waals-like adhesion and friction between the contact element and the substrate. The approa…