Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project

The Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project (MORP) was a Canadian astronomical organization established in the 1960s as part of a large-scale network designed to photograph bright meteors, or fireballs. This network, which also included projects in the United States and Europe, aimed to provide all-sky coverage over vast areas.1

The primary goals of these fireball networks, including MORP, were to measure meteoroid orbits and to identify probable impact areas for any surviving meteorites. By triangulating observations from multiple locations, scientists could estimate a meteoroid's trajectory and, with speed calculations, determine its orbit before it entered Earth's atmosphere. While the networks had limited success in recovering meteorites, the few recovered specimens, all ordinary chondrites, helped researchers understand meteoroid properties and distinguish between objects from asteroid belts and those from comets.1