Amazing stuff! A tiny meteorite was recovered in a desert landscape! Like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack!
I suspect, this is only the beginning of more successful hunts for meteors/meteorites!
"Scientists in Western Australia have carried out the first recovery of an observed meteorite fall with the help of drones and machine-learning techniques. The finding could pave the way for more falls to be located and studied, helping scientists explore the make-up of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. ...
The discovery was made after a bright meteor fireball was spotted in April last year by cameras belonging to the Australian Desert Fireball Network. Following examination of the fireball, researchers determined that meteorites could have been scattered in an area near to Kybo Station in Western Australia. A team was then deployed to the predicted “strewn field” to begin searching the area using two drones. ..."
From the abstract:
"... A convolutional neural network, trained on previously-recovered meteorites with fusion crusts, processed the images on our field computer after each flight. meteorite candidates identified by the algorithm were sorted by team members using two user interfaces to eliminate false positives. Surviving candidates were revisited with a smaller drone, and imaged in higher resolution, before being eliminated or finally being visited in-person. The 70 g meteorite was recovered within 50 m of the calculated fall line using, demonstrating the effectiveness of this methodology which will facilitate the efficient collection of many more observed meteorite falls."
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