Fireballs in the Sky

Fireballs in the Sky is an award-winning citizen science program that connects the public with the research of the Desert Fireball Network [DFN], based at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Through augmented reality, an intuitive interface and sensing technology of this smartphone app, anyone anywhere in the world can recreate their fireball sighting to contribute scientifically useful data. If you’ve ever seen a meteor, or a bright fireball, then you’ve experienced one of nature’s true wonders. If you’ve ever wondered what they are, where they come from (and want to contribute to the science) this app is for you.

Together with NASA the DFN is expanding to become a Global Fireball Observatory that aims to understand the early workings of the solar system by studying meteorites, fireballs and their pre-Earth orbits. Using an autonomous network of cameras, the DFN captures the paths of fireballs in the sky, triangulating trajectories from multiple viewpoints. Fireballs in the Sky extends the reach of the observations via the app, with your sightings contributing to this innovative research project.

This app is the only one of its kind, designed for you to:

• Pinpoint the altitude and azimuth of the start and end of the fireball you saw

• Build your own fireball. Select different options for duration, shape, brightness, colour and hue, and watch how an animated fireball changes to match what you’ve just seen. If it looked like it fragmented as it came through the atmosphere you can select different options for number of fragments, and see the animation change accordingly.

• Add any other notes or details to your sighting report.

• Keep track of your sightings, and those of other users.

• Get updates on your sightings, and see levels of detail in feedback: Was it seen by other users? If it was, then how many other users saw it? Was there enough information to work out a trajectory? What was its orbit: where did it come from in the solar system?

In addition, you’ll be able to:

• Find out when and where in the sky meteor showers are occurring, using the augmented reality heads-up display

• Get fireball news, and see updates on the DFN project, announcements and events

• Access our gallery of zoomable images – the fireballs we’ve seen and the meteorites that we’ve found. A great thing about the project is that the data are in the form of beautiful images. You’ll have access to all that and be able to see the best of the bunch for yourself.