According to a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, there are approximately 600 places in Antarctica that could contain undiscovered meteorites. Scientists have built an AI that has discovered 600 potentially meteorite-rich areas across the continent, according to a report published in the journal Science Advances.
Over the years, Antarctica has become a hotspot for meteorite finds. Thereby, accounting for roughly two-thirds of all meteorites discovered to date.
“We found some unexplored areas with a great potential to find meteorites,” lead study author Veronica Tollenaar told Space.com. She is a glaciologist at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.
Over 45,000 meteorites have been recovered from the region. But study experts estimate that only 5-13 percent of the space rocks that may be lurking beneath the ice sheets have been discovered.
“Our calculations suggest that more than 300,000 meteorites are still present at the surface of the ice sheet. The potential remains enormous”, Tollenaar says.
New era of Antarctica meteorites’ recovery missions
The experts are drawing conclusions based on artificial intelligence, which properly identified 83 percent of the known meteorite-rich locations. The majority of these potentially meteorite-rich locations, according to the study, are not far from existing research stations.
“By visiting these locations and using new recovery techniques in the field, such as surveys with drones, we are about to enter a new era of Antarctic meteorite recovery missions,” Tollenaar told Space.com.
Snow blankets the entire continent. It is precisely why dark-colored meteorites show out against the white ice sheets. Hence, making it easy to find space rocks in Antarctica. Furthermore, Antarctica’s 98 percent snow cover aids in the preservation of these space rocks for long periods.
The specialists are confident in their AI-based mapping. But Tollenaar recognizes that the detection of meteorite-rich zones was not perfect, and the discoverers may be unhappy. She did add, though, that if nothing else, the miscalculations will aid in improving the AI’s ability to map the region in the future.