Meteorites (Meteors That Landed / Impacted)

[ramonmercado]

Big Michigan Meteor. Vids at links.

Meteorite hunters in Michigan found six rocks Thursday (Jan. 18) that they say came from a spectacular fireball that lit up local skies earlier this week.

The team of Larry Atkins, Robert Ward and Darryl Landry made the finds on an isolated Michigan lake — they declined disclosing the exact location so as not to draw unwanted attention to the lake and its residents. In an interview with Space.com, Atkins said he plans on continuing the hunt for at least the next week.

https://www.space.com/39442-michigan-meteor-fireball-meteorites-found.html

NASA saw that blazing, earth-shaking meteor fireball
A NASA camera got a look at the fireworks caused by a spectacular meteor breaking apart over the US Midwest.
https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-mete...0ea3&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

 

[hunck]

Diamonds in Sudan meteorite 'are remnants of lost planet'

Possibly. The diamonds found were larger than could have been caused by impact so are thought to have formed deep underground under immense pressure.

Diamonds found in a meteorite that exploded over the Nubian desert in Sudan a decade ago were formed deep inside a “lost planet” that once circled the sun in the early solar system, scientists say.

Astronomers have long hypothesised that dozens of fledgling planets, ranging in size from the moon to Mars, formed in the first 10m years of the solar system and were broken apart and repackaged in violent collisions that ultimately created the terrestrial planets that orbit the sun today.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the Swiss team now describe fresh analyses that show that diamonds in the meteorite contain specks of an iron-sulphur compound that is thought only to form at pressures greater than 20 gigapascals. They conclude that the diamonds formed with the specks inside them, deep beneath the surface of an unknown world.

“We are probably looking at an object that was one of the first planets to circle the sun before they collided with each other to create the actual planets we have today,” said Gillet.

James Wittke, who runs the meteorite laboratory at Northern Arizona University, said the scientists’ conclusions were reasonable. “We think that there were probably many larger ‘parent’ bodies in the early solar system, which have since been destroyed, so a since-destroyed body the size of Mercury is reasonable,” he said. “One as large as Mars seems a little surprising, but this paper presents the best, and perhaps only, type of evidence for determining the sizes of these parent bodies.”

 

[ramonmercado]

Money at your feet

Meteorite used as doorstop for decades worth $100,000

• It landed on a farm near Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1930, and is estimated to be 4 billion years old
• When the house was sold, it was included in the sale by the farmer who had no idea of its value, but had quite a story about finding it
• If you see a meteorite fall to Earth and remain at least partially intact, it would be in your best interest to run (or drive, quickly) to find it!

It's not often that Mona Sirbescu, a professor of geology at Central Michigan University, has actually had someone come in with what they thought was a meteorite, and then found it to be true. In fact, this is the only time it's happened to her

People bring things there frequently, and they're never meteorites. However, a man named David Mazurek showed up recently with a specimen that proved be the the bonafide thing. "For 18 years, the answer has been categorically 'no,' meteor wrongs, not meteorites," Sibescu quipped in a statement from CMU on Thursday. ...

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/edmore-meteorite

 

[ramonmercado]

Another valuable meteorite.

A moon rock discovered on Earth could fetch around $500,000 (€433,920) when it goes on auction.

A 12-pound lunar meteorite discovered in North-west Africa last year is up for auction by Boston-based RR Auction and will be subject to online bidding that runs from Thursday until October 18.

RR described it as “one of the most important meteorites available for acquisition anywhere in the world today” and one of the biggest pieces of the moon ever put up for sale.

The rock classified as NWA 11789, also known as “Buagaba” was found last year in a remote area of Mauritania but probably plunged to Earth thousands of years ago.

The meteorite is actually composed of six fragments that fit together like a puzzle.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/giant-moon-rock-to-go-under-the-hammer-875011.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

Nazi expedition to Tibet, meteorites, Buddha statue, real Indiana Jones territory!

Journal Reference:
Elmar Buchner, Martin Schmieder, Gero Kurat, Franz Brandstätter, Utz Kramar, Theo Ntaflos, Jörg Kröchert. Buddha from space: An ancient object of art made of a Chinga iron meteorite fragment. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2012.01409.x .

The 2012 Meteoritics & Planetary Science article describing the findings from scientific examination of the statue's material can be accessed at:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2012.01409.x

 

[ramonmercado]

Is there a thread for common or garden meteors that have landed?

The first British-led expedition to gather meteorites in the Antarctic has returned with a haul of 36 space rocks.

Manchester University's Dr Katherine Joy was dropped in the deep field with British Antarctic Survey guide Julie Baum for four weeks.

The pair spent their days near the Shackleton mountains running across the ice sheet in skidoos looking for out-of-place objects.

The meteorites ranged from tiny flecks to some that were as big as a melon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-en...=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbcnews

 

[EnolaGaia]

It would seem that atmospheric friction / heat can cause an incoming meteor to be reshaped into a conical or bullet-like shape - sometimes multiple ones if the main body of the meteor breaks into pieces during entry.

Earth Is Littered with Mysterious Space-Cones, and Now We Know Why

Earth is littered with cones from space, and it's our planet's own fault.

Most meteorites found on Earth are just randomly shaped blobs. But a surprisingly high number of them, about 25%, are cone-shaped when you fit all their pieces back together. Scientists call these conical space-stones "oriented meteorites." And now, thanks to a pair of experiments published online today (July 22) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), we know why: The atmosphere is carving the rocks into more aerodynamic shapes as they fall to Earth.

"These experiments tell an origin story for oriented meteorites," Leif Ristroph, a New York University (NYU) mathematical physicist who led the study, said in a statement. "The very aerodynamic forces that melt and reshape meteoroids in flight also stabilize [them] so that a cone shape can be carved and ultimately arrive on Earth." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/65995-space-cones.html

 

[Sid]

It would seem that atmospheric friction / heat can cause an incoming meteor to be reshaped into a conical or bullet-like shape - sometimes multiple ones if the main body of the meteor breaks into pieces during entry.


FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/65995-space-cones.html

re: *"It would seem that atmospheric friction / heat can cause an incoming meteor to be reshaped:"

Yes, that's absolutely true 'EnolaGaia;' Stood on a hillside in Perthshire one night, I witnessed a huge asteroid crossing almost directly overhead.
At first it appeared to be moving really slowly, and appeared as if it was sitting on the edge of the upper atmosphere.

As it crossed over the valley where I was stood watching it in pitch darkness, the lower front end was obviously touching the extreme outer edge of the atmosphere, there were visibly (and by sound) huge white-hot molten 'sparks' flying off and falling away from below and in front of it.

This happened until it got three-quarters of the way across my field of view, then it suddenly shot off at a mind-blowing speed to disappear into the darkness of space completely in less than a second!

So, yes the heat/melt factor must be able to reshape objects that travel through it ((maybe more so if in rotation, or at critical angles?) a subject about which I know little.)

 

[EnolaGaia]

... there were visibly (and by sound) huge white-hot molten 'sparks' flying off and falling away from below and in front of it. ...

Yep ... My most memorable sightings involved watching the little spin-off bits, and the most memorable ones of all were the rare times I heard the explosive sound some seconds after a break-up or break-off event.

NOTE: In case I prefaced my earlier news item post too generically ... We all know full well atmospheric friction can shape an incoming space rock. The cited article focused on the special case of an entry trajectory so direct that atmospheric ablation shapes the meteorite into a quite symmetrical conical shape.

 

[hunck]

Indian farmers shocked as suspected meteorite crashes into rice field

The object the size of a football landed with a thud in a paddy field in Madhubani district in Bihar state on Monday, startling farmers and sending up clouds of smoke.

Kapil Ashok, the magistrate for Madhubani, told the Times of India that labourers reported seeing “a fireball-like object coming down from the sky”. Residents of Mahadeva village later dug up the object from a 150cm-deep (5ft) deep hole.

The object was described as light brown in colour with some shine, and weighing about 15kg (33lb). It was reported to have strong magnetic properties.

Ashok told the Press Trust of India it looked like a rock “but its glitter is much more than that of an unpolished stone”.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Scientists have identified a never-before-seen mineral compound in the Wedderburn meteorite (Austrailia; 1951).

Scientists Confirm The Discovery of a Mineral Never Before Seen in Nature

It was found along the side of a road in a remote Australian gold rush town. In the old days, Wedderburn was a hotspot for prospectors – it occasionally still is – but nobody there had ever seen a nugget quite like this one.

The Wedderburn meteorite, found just north-east of the town in 1951, was a small 210-gram chunk of strange-looking space rock that fell out of the sky. For decades, scientists have been trying to decipher its secrets, and researchers just decoded another.

In a new study led by Caltech mineralogist Chi Ma, scientists analysed the Wedderburn meteorite and verified the first natural occurrence of what they call 'edscottite': a rare form of iron-carbide mineral that's never been found in nature.

"Scientists have discovered a new mineral, one never before seen in nature, lodged inside a meteorite found near Wedderburn in central Victoria. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/minera...found-buried-in-heart-of-mysterious-meteorite

See Also:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/...-inside-it-a-new-mineral-20190830-p52mhg.html

 

[Kondoru]

Its interesting that the Indian meteorite was magnetic....

The Inventio Fortunata describes the North pole as a magnetic rock.

And the Cape York Meterorite was an iron one...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite

 

[EnolaGaia]

Relict building blocks of life ... Mmmmm ... Smells like Brussels Sprouts ...

'Cosmic Mudball Meteorite' Smells Like Brussels Sprouts, Finds New Home at Museum

It looks like a block of mud and smells (some say) like pungent vegetables. Nonetheless, the latest addition to the collection at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is a wondrous thing — a visitor from across the cosmos that fell to Earth earlier this year as a meteorite.

This piece of the so-called cosmic mudball meteorite — dubbed Aguas Zarcas, for the region of Costa Rica where it landed — weighs about 4 lbs. (1.8 kilograms). Unlike many rocky or metallic meteorites, it has a distinctive aroma that is somewhat like that of cooked Brussels sprouts ...

This odor comes from organic compounds such as amino acids. Billions of years ago, malodorous meteorites like this were likely what seeded Earth with the building blocks for life, and Field Museum scientists will study the smelly space rock for clues about the materials that shaped our solar system ...

Aguas Zarcas fell to Earth on April 23, blazing across the skies over Costa Rica's Alajuela province as a spectacular fireball, The Meteoritical Society reported. The meteorite broke apart during entry; one fast-moving piece weighing about 41 ounces (1,162 grams) smashed into a house, and another fragment weighing around 10 ounces (280 g) struck a doghouse ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/mudball-meteorite-smells-like-brussels-sprouts.html

 

[madmath]

Looks like a human may have been knocked off by an outer space visitor at least once:

Archivists uncover evidence of person killed by a meteorite

 

[EnolaGaia]

A survey of meteorites in Antarctica has provided a basis for estimating how much meteorite debris falls on the earth's surface annually.

Antarctic meteorites yield global bombardment rate

A team of UK scientists has provided a new estimate for the amount of space rock falling to Earth each year.

It's in excess of 16,000kg. This is for meteorite material above 50g in mass.

It doesn't take account of the dust that's continuously settling on the planet, and of course just occasionally we'll be hit by a real whopper of an asteroid that will skew the numbers.

But the estimate is said to give a good sense of the general quantity of rocky debris raining down from space.

"The vast, vast majority of objects to hit the Earth are really small," explained Dr Geoff Evatt.

"We're talking about objects for which, when they strike the ground, the fragments sum together to over 50g. So, typically, 50g-10kg in total. Objects bigger than this are very, very infrequent," the University of Manchester mathematician told BBC News. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52465237

 

[EnolaGaia]

Meanwhile ... In meteorite marketing and marketplace news ...

A piece of the moon for sale: just $2.5 million

One of the world's largest lunar meteorites goes on private sale at Christie's on Thursday, valued at 2 million pounds ($2.49 million).

The moon rock, weighing over 13.5 kg, was probably struck off the surface of the moon by a collision with an asteroid or comet and then showered down on the Sahara desert.

Known as NWA 12691, it is thought to be the fifth largest piece of the moon ever found on earth. There is just 650 kg of moon rock known to be on earth. ...

Meteorites are incredibly rare and only about one in a thousand comes from the moon, making this a very special object, he added.

"We are expecting huge international interest in it from natural history museums... it is a wonderful trophy for anyone who is interested in space history or lunar exploration." ...

Christie's will also offer for private sale a group of 13 aesthetic iron meteorites. That collection is estimated to be worth 1.4 million pounds.

FULL STORY: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-moon-for-sale-just-2-5-million-idUSKBN22B2C4

 

[ramonmercado]

Treasure from space. Vid at link.

There are treasures buried underground, like gold, silver, and diamonds—and then there is manna from heaven.

Last year, a meteorite impact in Costa Rica stirred up a frenzied hunt for the precious fragments and attracted collectors from around the world. The meteorite—a rare type known as a carbonaceous chondrite—may contain complex organic molecules that gave life on Earth a head start. To understand why, one must consider the epic journey that the meteorite, called Aguas Zarcas, took before arriving at its final destination.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/watch-space-rocks-impacted-costa-rican-village-more-ways-one

 

[WeeScottishLassie]

I own some moldavite pieces which is part of an awesome meteorite.

Feels amazing to hold it knowing it travelled through space.

 

[hunck]

I own some moldavite pieces which is part of an awesome meteorite.

Feels amazing to hold it knowing it travelled through space.

Know what you mean but when you think about it, everything's travelled through space.

I'd never heard of Moldavite & on googling, seems it was formed [on earth] by a large meteor strike nearly 15 million years ago & 99% of all moldavite finds come from South Bohemia.

The total amount of moldavite scattered around the world is estimated at 275 tons.

pretty rare.

 

[WeeScottishLassie]

Know what you mean but when you think about it, everything's travelled through space.

I'd never heard of Moldavite & on googling, seems it was formed [on earth] by a large meteor strike nearly 15 million years ago & 99% of all moldavite finds come from South Bohemia.



pretty rare.

Hmmmmm, true but that doesn't take away the magick properties of it for me and how it came to me

There are stories of it being used in the holy grail and stuff like that so it is very expensive for even a tiny bit!

 

[hunck]

Hmmmmm, true but that doesn't take away the magick properties of it for me and how it came to me

There are stories of it being used in the holy grail and stuff like that so it is very expensive for even a tiny bit!

Formed by one meteorite strike 15 million years ago is pretty special in itself. Have you got 'raw' pieces or is it in jewellery?

 

[Krepostnoi]

Know what you mean but when you think about it, everything's travelled through space.

We're all time travellers, too.

By strange coincidence, I am just taking a break from redacting all the big numbers in the lyrics of the Pythons' Galaxy Song (although I'm actually going to use this far superior version) in order to give my students practice in recognising same when they hear them. As well as big numbers, there's also the chance for them to learn a handy way of saying "absolutely none", as well...

 

[WeeScottishLassie]

Formed by one meteorite strike 15 million years ago is pretty special in itself. Have you got 'raw' pieces or is it in jewellery?

It literally sends shivers through me when I hold it and it used to hurt my hand when I first started with it!

I've got a raw piece which I meditate with everyday and a small bit in a pendant.

 

[RaM]

I often wonder if the small objects that they show being dug out
of people referred to as alien implants are in fact small meteorites.

 

[madmath]

You would definitely feel a meteorite hitting you if it was large enough to penetrate and embed.

 

[eburacum]

Small meteorites (the size of a grain of rice etcetera) only penetrate the upper atmosphere, then fall slowly, like dust, to the ground. They wouldn't penetrate anything solid, let alone human flesh. If you want to collect meteor dust, try sweeping your gutters with a magnet.
https://www.newscientist.com/letter/mg23331090-800-10-finding-meteorites-in-your-gutters-is-easy/

 

[maximus otter]

Small meteorites (the size of a grain of rice etcetera) only penetrate the upper atmosphere, then fall slowly, like dust, to the ground. They wouldn't penetrate anything solid, let alone human flesh.

Surely though, a meteorite that entered the atmosphere at the size of, say, a golf ball might be ablated to the size of a grain of rice by the time it reached ground level, yet still be travelling at a high enough velocity to pierce skin?

A 0.177” air pistol pellet weighing ~8 grains and travelling at only ~350 feet per second can break skin.

maximus otter

 

[RaM]

As for any pain you may think it a insect bite or sting.

 

[eburacum]

Surely though, a meteorite that entered the atmosphere at the size of, say, a golf ball might be ablated to the size of a grain of rice by the time it reached ground level, yet still be travelling at a high enough velocity to pierce skin?

This would be very unlikely. Even large meteors, like the Chelyabinsk meteor, lose all their momentum somewhere in the atmosphere and fall the rest of the way. Each meteor has a specific penetration depth, which depends on its density and hardness, the density of the atmosphere at various levels and the angle of incidence. Only the very largest are still travelling at interplanetary speeds when they hit the ground, and they tend to leave craters.

The others just lose momentum as soon as they pass through a column of air roughly equal to their own mass, then drop the rest of the way. This is a consequence of Newton's Approximation of Penetration, which is only a rough rule of thumb, but applies to bullets too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth

 

[eburacum]

From that wiki article;
"An iron meteorite with a length of 1.3 m would punch through the atmosphere; a smaller one would be slowed by the air and fall at terminal velocity to the ground."
Assuming it were travelling straight downwards. Any oblique angle would require a larger impactor, because it would pass through a longer column of air.

So to achieve an impactor that is still travelling at speed when it reaches your nose at ground level, the original object would need to be 1.3 metres in diameter. Any bigger, and it would take your head off; any smaller and it would just fall to the ground at the terminal velocity of a small ball bearing. A very tricky shot, even for aliens.