'WT1190F turns into fireball and dies out'

by Manjula Fernando

As we set out from Colombo before the first light made its way, to cover the preparations to 'welcome' the mysterious space object that will make its unceremonious landing in the sea off the Southern coast of Sri Lanka, our thoughts were filled with other matters.

All eyes on the expected descent of the mysterious space object. Pic: Susantha Wijeyasunasekera

However, as we approached Matara around 8.30am and reached Mayura restaurant on Beach Road, not before, the seriousness of the assignment at hand, struck us. A couple of men in front of the restaurant said the staff had not turned up being afraid of the 'object' that was going to fall nearby.There was no one to serve the food.

We had to find an alternative place to satiate our hunger before the possible astronomical encounter.

People going about their daily businesses, appeared perturbed although, it has been time and again assured that this object known by the serial number WT1190F, is not going to cause any serious damage as it enters the earth. Later we learned that some parents did not send their young children to school in the Southern Province, not wanting to take undue risks.

As we set out to proceed to Tangalle to meet scientists from the Arthur C Clark Institute, a call confirmed there was a team of French scientists at Ruhuna University, and they were part of the European Space Agency's tracking team of the mysterious object.

It took us sometime to convince the security men at the gate of our rather important mission. To add to our woes, one of the faculties were having their 'social' that day but things could have been worse.

Overcoming that hurdle with the intervention of the Deputy Vice Chancellor, we reached the Physics Department where atop one of the buildings stood advanced equipment brought in all the way from the Paris Observatory in France.

The equipment included a Raspberry Pi camera which is cable of taking 90 frames a second and a FRIPON camera with a 360 degree panoramic view. Another one such camera was fixed at Ambalangoda by their second team to capture data from a different angle. The equipment is to gather data on the space object and draw up an accurate trajectory and its path after the entry to earth's atmosphere.

Rare luck

Scientists world over were keen to see the reaction of this space object which they had the rare luck to observer for many weeks since October3, 2015, as it collides with the earth's atmosphere. Danushka Amaradasa, a research assistant with the Physics Department who met us at the university gate explained their mission. Amaradsa and other research scientists who are studying micro meteorites under Prof.Chandra Wickremasinghe was facilitating the ESA team under the auspices of the Physics Department heads.

"We could not get an accurate reading because the sky was covered with clouds since last night." he said a few hours before the object was supposed to make contact with the earth. ""We are hopeful the other scientists on the ground are better positioned than we are and some of us will get a clear sky at the time of its happening."

Min-Kgung Kwon from the Paris Observatory explained her mission there. The team was assisting a collaborative effort led by famed Dutch-US Astronomer Peter Jenniskens of SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Centre.

Their second team headed by Prof. Kavan Ranatunga from Carnegie Mellon University and a scientist from the French Observatory Auriane Egal were stationed at Ambalangoda. The third station operated from Polonnaruwa.

Meanwhile, the Arthur C Clark Institute(ACC) team led by scientist Saraj Gunasekera had an observation station positioned in an elevated vast sea front near the Tangalle Navy camp. They too were anticipating to catch a glimpse of the 'space stranger' that was going to make a rare appearance before the naked eye, in a suicidal contact with planet earth.

The ACC team was equipped with a 180 degree wide angle camera to capture the fire ball within the few seconds it was expected to appear and burn out, over the horizon. From where they were, it was expected to travel from North West to south across the sea.

Officials from the Planetarium too joined the ACC to set up a public observation point for the people visiting the place. ""We have brought in two telescopes.

The telescopes will be helpful to see the object far off, this equipment is not useful to see it at close range as it travels too fast," Astronomy Demonstrator Nalaka Abeysekera said.

Star gaze

The ESA has calculated the object might travel 11 km per second.

The expectation to star gaze over night and capture a glimpse of the space stranger was overshadowed by the atmospheric disturbance in the East of Sri Lanka which brought rain to many parts of the island for the past several days. Janaka Addassuriya of the ACC said they were sky gazing from the previous night but the view was obscured by the rain clouds. So many possibilities were toyed by different space watchers as to the fate of the WT1190F but the ESA maintained that it will completely burn out in the sky posing no threat during the impact.

This was the first time the scientists were able to predict the exact time and location of the re-entry of a piece of space debris.

Making these predictions true, the space object completely burned out but not as close as 80km. It had caught fire 100km above, depriving the ground scientists any chance of having a sight of the rare phenomenon, Senior Research Assistant Amaradasa said.

He said the scientists may be able to predict what the object is made of-the chemical composition, by studying the ignition (the fireball). The ESA has predicted it as a hollow discarded piece of a rocket.

The challenging airborne observation led by Dr.Jenninskens and UAE Space Agency, was lucky to capture it all within the split second it turned into a fire ball as it plunged through the atmosphere.

They had calculated accurately where the object entered the earth to get the aircraft fly alongside at a safe distance and capture the fireball within seconds.

The aircraft which he and the five scientists travelled landed in Katunayake around Friday noon, for re-fueling before heading back to the UAE.

Dr.Jenninskens's delight at the accomplished mission was expressed in a short email sent to a Sri Lankan scientists, which the Sunday Observer exclusively laid its hand on.