LEADING THE SCIENCE REVOLUTION: Dr. Franchi
The Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) is leading the first African network of higher education institutions in Planetary and Space Science.
The project titled “Pan-Africa Planetary and Space Science Network” is funded to the tune of 1.4 million euros by the European Commission through the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) under the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme.
The project is led by Dr. Fulvio Franchi in collaboration with Professor Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, from the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Professor Gregory Hillhouse, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
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Asteroid that hit Botswana in 2018 likely came from Vesta
On June 2, 2018, a small asteroid was discovered on an impact trajectory with Earth. Eight hours later, a video camera in South Africa recorded a bright fireball over Botswana. An international team of researchers have now published their findings in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science after they tracked down the surviving meteorites deep inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in central Botswana.
“Combining the observations of the small asteroid in space with information gleaned from the meteorites shows it likely came from Vesta, second largest asteroid in our Solar System and target of NASA’s DAWN mission”, said lead author and meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center.