Meteor

Meteor makes the first space-based observations of the chemical composition of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere. Meteors are relatively rare, and are difficult to monitor from the ground because of the interference created by Earth’s atmosphere. The Meteor investigation takes high-resolution video and images of the atmosphere and uses a software program to search for bright spots, which can later be analyzed on the ground. Investigating the elemental composition of meteors is important to our understanding of how the planets developed.

Visit Chiba Institute Meteor website (this website is in Japanese)