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  • Reuters/Dado Ruvic

    France creates a meteor-tracking camera network

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    06.14.2016

    It's difficult to track where meteors go when showers are both relatively common and rain down loads of space rocks. However, France thinks it has the answer. It recently launched FRIPON, a meteor detection network. The system uses a country-wide camera system (currently 68, scaling up to 100) to track where meteors fly -- if two or more cameras spot something, scientists get an alert. Eventually, that camera data will help narrow down likely impact areas (as small as 1 kilometer, or 0.6 miles) and send thousands of volunteers out to recover meteorites.