A meteorite crashed near the American Pacific coast on March 7.

NASA is now analyzing two fragments found on the seabed to establish whether they came from the same meteorite.

NASA hopes to use any findings to learn more about the behavior of meteorites.



A meteorite that crashed near the American Pacific coast on March 7 has been causing quite a stir for the past few days.

A NASA researcher named Marc Fries is on a research expedition seeking remains of the meteorite, believed to have landed on the seabed.

The NASA mission reports its first success

The official website of the expedition's research vessel, Nautilus, has reported that meteorite fragments have already been found. Two fragments thought to be from the crashed meteorite are being investigated by Fries and his team.

Fries' expedition was planned in June in conjunction with the Nautilus, which happened to be operating in the same area as the crash site.

The Nautilus is equipped with state-of-the-art deep-sea robots, called ROVs, designed to scan the seabed with cameras and special sensing instruments. A kind of "magnetic rod" is used to scan the floor for metallic material.

As the researchers are hoping to make further discoveries in as large an area as possible within a short time, the vessel is also using wave technology to find hard objects among the soft areas of the seabed. The harder the object, the more the measuring device deflects waves.

Fries believes the impact location is most likely limited to an area of about 1 square kilometer.

The success of this NASA project could be a huge scientific milestone

With this mission, NASA hopes to learn more about the composition and behavior of meteorites — the debris left over when a meteor burns through the Earth's atmosphere. This meteorite could contain heat-resistant materials, an area on which researchers have been trying to focus their efforts in recent years.

You can follow the expedition and the work of the Nautilus in the livestream on nautiluslive.org.