About 5cm in diameter, billions of years old, and having likely travelled 100-million miles — a meteorite fragment provisionally named the Nqweba Meteorite was introduced to an enthralled audience at Nelson Mandela University (NMU) on Tuesday.
The moment marked the culmination of a week of intense work by a collaborative team from NMU, Wits and Rhodes universities, who have been piecing together the events of Sunday August 25 when a strange blue light flashed across the sky and an unearthly booming noise shook communities from Mossel Bay to Addo.
Vigorous speculation ensued on social media, but the truth has turned out to be as fascinating as people’s wildest ideas.
Wits-based international meteorite expert Prof Roger Gibson choked with emotion when he described the vital role eyewitnesses had played, especially young Eli-zê du Toit, who found the meteorite fragment, and Zoe van der Merwe, who videoed the meteorite's flight.
“We received 150 reports in all, and each helped us to understand more about what happened.
“The common thread was awe and this will always be an important event for the people of the Eastern Cape, I believe.”
He said as soon as he heard about the event and realised what it was, he knew response time was going to be critical.
“We needed to collect valuable scientific data and any meteorite fragments, as well as to explain to the local public that this was a natural event, and how the individual parts linked together.”
He said his team was exhausted but elated by what they had managed to collate.
“We have established that the epicentre of the event was between George and Gqeberha.
“The meteorite collided with the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 38km like a bug collides with a windscreen.
“The increasing friction as it streaked across the sky at a speed of up to 72,000km/h caused it to heat up and form a high-altitude bolide or tail flare.
“There was a delayed sonic boom and an ultimate explosion over the Groot Winterhoek Mountains northwest of Gqeberha.”
The big moment at Tuesday’s event came when the research team donned rubber gloves and lifted Nqweba, with its glossy black “fusion crust” and interior peppered with green clasts, out of a desiccator, used to keep it dry, and presented it to the audience.
Nine-year-old Eli-zê, who was one of the stars of the show on Tuesday, said she was visiting her grandparents in Nqweba (formerly Kirkwood), and on the morning of August 25 she and her dogs were in the garden playing with a ball.
“I heard a rumbling noise that sounded like thunder and then I saw a stone fall out the sky.
“I ran to it and picked it up and it was still warm. I showed it to my grandma and then to my mom.
“After my mom Googled it, she said it could be a meteorite.”
NMU geologist Dr Carla Dodd said she had been cycling in the Elands River Valley when she heard the boom.
Unsure what it was, when she got home she went onto social media and saw the video which Zoe had shot in St Francis Bay and her mother, Jessica Botha, had posted online.
Dodd said she was contacted by Gibson and a research team was quickly formed, eyewitnesses were interviewed, a collection permit was obtained from the provincial heritage authority, and the all-important meteoritic fragments that had been found by little Eli-zê were secured.
“As geologists and meteorologists we deal with rocks that are millions of years old so it is not often we are in a rush.
“But in less than 12 hours we had the semblance of a plan.”
Geologist Silindokuhle Mavuso, representing the Eastern Cape Heritage Resources Agency, said SA was a geological and palaeontological treasure trove and the meteorite added to this bounty.
“We have a lot to offer the world in this field, and the fact that this meteorite landed in the backyard of the Eastern Cape should make our people here very proud.”
Rhodes geologist and electro-microscopy specialist Dr Deon van Niekerk said meteoritic fragments like the one Eli-zé had collected were invaluable.
“It’s usually a needle in a haystack situation trying to find fragments which might have fallen from a meteorite, so to have someone who actually witnessed what she did and then collected it, we now have a chance to examine it and that’s wonderful.”
He said there had been some initial confused speculation that her find was a local rock or even the scat of a wild animal, but it was soon established that it was indeed a meteorite fragment.
“Considering the information we have from Nasa [America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration], our current speculation is that it is a fragment of a meteorite about 1m cubed which was knocked off the asteroid Vesta when a space rock slammed into it.
“Our provisional name for it is Nqweba, the new name for Kirkwood, where it was found, but that must still be approved by the Meteoritical Society.”
Van Niekerk said meteorites such as Nqweba, “provided valuable insights into the inner workings of other planetary bodies, offering scientists a glimpse into processes similar to those that formed Earth’s rocks".
“The discovery of the Nqweba Meteorite represents a significant opportunity for SA scientists to study a rare and valuable specimen from space, advancing our understanding of meteorites and their role in the broader context of planetary science.”
HeraldLIVE
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