GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Did you see something shiny travelling across the sky along the Garden Route at 01:00 on Monday 9 August, or hear a loud noise, something like an explosion?

Many believe this phenomenon was caused by a bolide following various reports of a bright light accompanied by what sounded like thunder, in the night sky along the Garden Route, Oudtshoorn and De Rust areas.

Local astronomer and Scifest Africa legend, Case Rijsdijk, says most people have probably seen a shooting star, which is a tiny piece of rock, pea-sized or smaller, travelling at high speed and burning up in the atmosphere, creating a streak of light. 

"Sometimes it might be a bigger piece that enters the Earth's atmosphere and burns up much more brightly and is probably visible for a longer time.

"These are usually called Fireballs. When a sizeable chunk enters the atmosphere at high speed, it is called a Bolide. It will get heated up and shine very brightly, make a lot of noise, sometimes explosive sounds, and break up into smaller pieces which land on Earth as meteorites."

Rijsdijk added that finding meteorites can make significant contributions to science, so the sighting of a Bolide generates a lot of interest and it becomes important to try and find its remains.

Help find remains

To locate these remains it is most useful to collect as much information as possible about this event so that the possible meteorites can be found. Rijsdijk asked that people who saw the Bolide, contact Tim Cooper at tpcooper@mweb.co.za. 

Security video cameras could also possibly have picked up the light or even its shadow, and the footage will be very useful. "The reason being that the camera points to a fixed position and collecting the light or even its shadow will indicate its direction." Please also provide Cooper with any such footage.

Once a meteorite lands on South African territory it belongs to the state (Act 25 of 1999) and is protected by the South African Heritage Resources Agency. Trading in South African meteorites is illegal.

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