SAASST organises meteorites workshop

In his opening speech, Prof. Ilias Fernini, Director of the Space Sciences Department, welcomed the participants and attendees, stressing the Academy's keenness to support scientific activities and benefit from the experience of specialists and researchers in the field of sciences and engineering. Prof. Ilias also pointed out the importance of organizing workshops and lectures that contribute to local society's development.

The workshop included several lectures given by researchers from the Space Sciences Department. First, Prof. Ilias Fernini's talk was about natural space debris, i.e., meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites. He highlighted the basis of the modern theory of planet formation and planetary orbits and explained the formation of the solar system and its different components. Next, Mrs. Maryam Sharif talked about:" Observing and Tracking Meteors," in which she highlighted the capabilities of the UAE Meteor Monitoring Network (UAEMMN) and how it is used to observe and track meteors. She also explained the methods used to determine the meteorites' fall location and discussed the challenges and limitations in the field. Mrs. Aisha Alowais presented a talk titled "Meteor Detection Using Machine Learning", where she addressed ways the team utilizes machine learning techniques to minimize the number of false detections and carry out the filtering process automatically. Such a method is innovative in detecting and classifying objects in the UAE sky.

Last, Mrs. Salma Subhi discussed the importance of the "Meteorites Center" as a specialized center concerned with scientific research, examination, analysis, and classification of different meteorites, including real meteorite samples. She also highlighted the precise mineral composition of meteorites through their microscopic characteristics. She also explained how to distinguish meteorites from terrestrial rocks in various ways and the natural glassy rocks formed when meteorites impact the Earth's surface. Finally, Ms. Munia Khalifa delivered a presentation about "Meteorites Recognition with Machine Learning" to emphasize how AI is integrated  with the meteorites center through a real-time project that aims to detect and recognize meteorites from earthly rocks. This facilitates the process of hunting meteorites in the desert with the help of a UAV drone making it work as a smart meteorite hunter.