New Meteorite Expedition

14:50, August 2, 2018

Employees of UrFU Institute of Physics and Technology will look for extraterrestrial objects in Mongolia

In August, six employees of UrFU Institute of Physics and Technology will go on a meteoric expedition to the Gobi Desert (Mongolia). Scientists will search for the fragments of meteorites in the region of the impact crater.

‘The approximate dates of the expedition are August 20 - September 10,’ says Alexander Pastukhovich, a member of the Department of Physical Methods and Tools of Quality Control. “ The expedition will include six members. We have signed an agreement with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, which provide information support. Most likely, if there are findings, there will be joint research and publications.’

This will be the first meteorite expedition to this region in the last few years. In 20 days, the scientists plan to pass a distance of about four thousand kilometers, from Ulan Bator to the Gobi and back.

‘At the moment we are collecting information on potentially interesting sites. I hope the expedition will go according to plan, without any problems,’ - says Alexander Pastukhovich. ‘Our goal is to find a meteorite, but since there have not been such discoveries so far, the task is rather difficult. It is encouraging that those areas of the Gobi that we will be exploring are adjacent to the northwestern part of China, where there are quite a large number of registered finds, and there is a strong possibility that we will have similar conditions. Though we aware of the differences in the relief: the Chinese part is a flat desert, the Mongolian one is situated near the mountains.’

Meteorite finds in Mongolia are not uncommon, but they are made mostly randomly. In 1992, the German researcher Eddie Bishop organized an expedition to Ulan Bator. The goal was to visit the impact crater. However, his expedition didn’t find any fragments of extraterrestrial origin. According to the Professor Viktor Grokhovsky, an important factor in the success of this expedition is the fact that the university staff have certain skills and experience in the search for meteorites in the deserts: in 2017, scientists conducted research in the deserts of Iran and Chile.