The First Ten Years of the Italian PRISMA Fireball Network: Between Scientific Research and Dissemination

This year, PRISMA (Prima Rete Italiana per la Sorveglianza sistematica di Meteore e Atmosfera), the First Italian Network for the Monitoring of Meteors and the Atmosphere [1,2], celebrates its first ten years of activity. Indeed, the PRISMA nationwide network of all-sky cameras was born in 2016, as a partner of the FRIPON international collaboration [3], in order to perform the continuous monitoring of the Italian skies in search of bright meteors and to determine the orbits of the meteoroids that originated them and, with a good degree of approximation, the strewn-field of the possible meteorite fall, thus potentially allowing its recovery, analysis and classification. Furthermore, the systematic observation of the sky, carried out by the PRISMA cameras, allows to collect useful data for meteorology and environmental monitoring, with particular reference to cloud cover and ALAN levels.

During its first ten years of research and dissemination activities, the Italian PRISMA fireball network, coordinated by INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, deployed more than 80 all-sky cameras, recovered two freshly-fallen meteorites, i.e. Cavezzo [4,5] (01/01/2020, L5-an, 55.3 g) and Matera [6] (14/02/2023, H5, 117.5 g), and was able to actively engage its community, comprising research institutions, universities, schools, amateur astronomy groups, associations and many other local organisations. Indeed, since the beginning, the strength of the PRISMA project has been its being a cross-disciplinary research and citizen science project capable of engaging scientists, students and the general public alike.

In this contribution, we will present the latest communication, dissemination, and outreach activities of the PRISMA project. In particular, we will focus on the STEAM educational activities and teaching scenarios developed for the Erasmus+ project StAnD – StudenTs As plaNetary Defenders (e.g. the Meteor Camera Kit Activity and the user-friendly, GUI-based application PASCAL - PRISMA All-Sky Camera Analysis Laboratory, meant to present the main stages involved in a meteor detection and the possible consequent meteorite recovery and analysis through an interactive simulation and the use of actual PRISMA calibration and fireball data). Furthermore, we will present the educational game developed for the Interreg Central Europe project DARKERSKY4CE – Strategic Transnational Approach to Reduce Light pollution in Central Europe, which is meant to raise awareness on the issue of light pollution and to promote the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity by highlighting the importance of dark skies as a competitive asset for sustainable development in non-urbanised areas. Finally, we will present the “Il Cielo A Terra” (“The Sky on Earth”) exhibit, the first travelling exhibition dedicated to meteorite sites in Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, a unique opportunity to discover six Italian meteorites through archive materials and exact replicas of the originals.

References

[1] Gardiol D. et al., PRISMA, Italian network for meteors and atmospheric studies, in: Proceedings of the IMC, Eds. Roggemans, A.; Roggemans, P., IMO, 2016, Egmond, the Netherlands; pages: 76-79.

[2] Gardiol D. et al., News from the Italian PRISMA fireball network, in: Proceedings of the IMC, Eds. Rudawska, R. et al., IMO, 2018, Pezinok-Modra, Slovakia; pages: 81-86.

[3] Colas F. et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics 2020, 644, A53.

[4] Gardiol D et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2021, 501, 1215-1227.

[5] Pratesi G. et al., Meteoritics & Planetary Science 2021, 56, 1125-1150.

[6] Pratesi G. et al., Meteoritics & Planetary Science 2025, 60, 2125-2148.