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Meteorite Drop In Wetumpka: Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2009 admin

18th Annual New Year’s Eve “Meteorite Drop” in Wetumpka

Posted: Dec 31, 2009 10:22 AM PST Updated: Dec 31, 2009 10:32 AM PST

In Wetumpka, folks will be treated to a special spin on the New Year’s Eve tradition.

Thursday night marks the 18th Annual Meteorite drop at the Old Courthouse – in honor of the meteorite that hit the River City.

This year, it will drop at 11pm with the ball in New York City, as folks in Wetumpka watch the crowds in Time Square projected onto a screen at the event.

After the ball drops at 11pm, bands and a small fireworks show help count down 2009.

But stick around, at the stroke of midnight, a big fireworks display with light up the river.

SOURCE – “Meteorite Drop” in Wetumpka

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Top Ten Meteorites Of All Time: Science Channel

December 31st, 2009 admin

The Science Channel ( Home of The Meteorite Men ) Has published an article on the Top Ten Meteorites of All Time.

Here’s the list with links to the info pages. Science Channel’s Top Ten Meteorites

10 – Allende Meteorite – Carbonaceous meteorite fall in Mexico 1969
9 – Murchison Meteorite – Carbonaceous meteorite fall in Australia 1969
8 – Peekskill Meteorite – Chondrite meteorite impacted car in Peekskill NY 1992
7 – Orgueil Meteorite – Meteorite fell May 1864
6 – ALH 84001 – Martian meteorite found in Antarctica 1984 (Possible Fossilized Microbial Lifeforms)
5 – Sylacauga/Hodges Meteorite – Meteorite hit 31 year old woman 1954
4 – Sikhote-Alin – Iron meteorite falls in Russia (Sikhote Alin Mountains) 1947
3 – Willamette Meteorite – Largest meteorite found in the United States 1902
2 – Hoba Meteorite – Largest meteorite in the world found in Namibia Africa 1920
1 – Tunguska Event – NOT a meteorite but comet/asteroid explosion over Siberia, Russia in 1908

Now here’s my issue with this list. Though I have more than one problem with this list I’ll supply the biggest one first. The ALH 84001 Martian meteorite is perhaps the most scientifically important meteorite ever discovered by man since the beginning of time. This is not an overstatement but rather just an opinion based on the fact that scientists believe there is evidence of fossilized microbial lifeforms found within the stone. Not to mention the second fact that it’s the only meteorite from the planet Mars that made it to the list.

To further the “problem” the Science Channel’s Top Ten list continue with the Tunguska Event which happened over Siberia in Russia in 1908. First off the Tunguska Event isn’t even a meteorite. This hotly debated “airburst” event leveled thousands of square miles of forest and started a firestorm of scientific study and intrigue. To this day no meteorite specimens have ever been recovered by any of the many meteorite expedition teams that have ventured out into the blast zone. In my opinion this event need not be on a “Top Ten Meteorite” list at all. It’s an event, NOT a meteorite.

If the ALH 84001 Martian meteorite is proven to harbor fossilized lifeforms this makes it the first meteorite in history to ever have been discovered with such an important find, and more importantly it will prove that we are not alone! That aliens do in fact exist. Even the possibility of this being true in my opinion makes the ALH 84001 worthy of the #1 spot on the list.

If that’s not worthy of the #1 spot on ANY Top Ten list I don’t know what is. Do you?

Maybe I’m a bit biased because I think that the possible discovery of lifeforms from somewhere other than Earth should mean more than a #6 spot on the Top Ten Meteorites of All Time.

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Aboriginal Australians World’s Earliest Astronomers?

December 31st, 2009 admin

Aboriginal Australians may have been the world’s earliest astronomers, says a Sydney scientist who has used ancient “Dreaming” stories and Google Earth maps to locate a previously unknown meteorite crater in the Northern Territory.

While researching the role of the night sky in traditional Aboriginal culture, Duane Hamacher, a PhD student at Macquarie University, came across a story related by the Arrernte people of Central Australia. It told of “a star that fell from the sky, making a noise like thunder, and crashed into a waterhole” in Palm Valley, west of Alice Springs. SOURCE – NZ Herald

SEE ALSO: Google, Dreaming lead to ancient crater

AN ABORIGINAL Dreaming story about a star crashing to earth with a noise like thunder has led to the discovery of an ancient meteorite crater in central Australia.

A Sydney astronomer, Duane Hamacher, found the bowl-shaped crater in Palm Valley, about 130 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, by searching on Google Earth. SOURCE – The Sydney Morning Herald

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Space Wanderer Meteorite Returns

December 31st, 2009 admin
Space-Wanderer-Meteorite-meteor3

IMAGE SOURCE: BigWell.org

GREENSBURG — The 1,000 pound Space Wanderer Pallasite Meteorite recently returned to its home in Greensburg. The meteorite will be placed on display in the newly completed City Hall, 300 S. Main, until the new Big Well Museum is constructed.

The Space Wanderer was recovered following the May 4, 2007 tornado that destroyed Greensburg. It was found mere inches from its home in the former Big Well Gift Shop. The meteorite has made a tour of Kansas since the tornado, first to Exploration Place in Wichita, then making a longer stop at the Sternberg Museum in Hays where it has been on display for two years.

READ MORE

SOURCE – The Pratt Tribune

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China’s Antarctic Expedition Team Finds Meteorite

December 31st, 2009 admin

China has found their first meteorite in Antarctica!

GLOVE MOUNTAIN, Antarctica, Dec 31 (Bernama) — China’s 26th Antarctic expedition team discovered its first meteorite at Antarctica’s Glove Mountain Wednesday afternoon, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

The team found the meteorite at the southern foot of Glove Mountain’s peak, said Dr. Hu Sen, a researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“It is highly probable (that it is) a Chondrite judging from the failure surface,” said Hu, adding that the meteorite weighed 221.5 grams.

SOURCE: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=465392

READ MORE HERE -  PHOTOS

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Announcement: The World’s First & Only Meteorite Wiki

October 27th, 2009 admin

Hi all you Meteorite Collectors, Scientists, Meteorite Junkies, Addicts & Meteorite Enthusiasts,

A long while ago I discussed an idea for a central meteorite website with some community members about the creation of a central hub of meteorite knowledge and information database in which everyone could participate and contribute through a community of like minded individuals. This of course would be for the furtherance of the science and hobby of meteoritics, meteorite collecting, meteorite hunting, and the meteorite industry as a whole.

A website that would provide an active and evolving database of encyclopedic meteorite knowledge and information for the hobbiest, scientist and even more so for the curious, as they are the new meteorite enthusiasts and possible future meteoriticists.

As the world learns more about meteorites, asteroids, comets, and the universe in relation to meteorites what better way to grow this knowledge base than through the first and only meteorite related wiki. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a wiki is, it’s an online collaborative effort to compile information in a community type environment.

Introducing The Meteorite Wiki: www.meteoritewiki.com

The Meteorite Wiki runs on the same software that runs the world famous and beloved Wikipedia.org website, and is robust and feature rich enough to provide the perfect venue to compile the worlds meteorite information into one easy and convenient online database.

Mission Statement: To compile knowledge and share the enjoyment of meteorite science & hobby through an open community wiki in which everyone interested can participate & contribute to the growth of the knowledge of meteorites.

Enjoy…

Regards,
Eric Wichman
Meteorites USA

Those interested in contributing or who would like more information, you’re welcome to respond to this thread publicly on-list or privately via email. If you belong to a university or educational institution we would love to have you contibute your articles, papers, photos, video or other media to the inclusion in the Meteorite Wiki. We have also reserved the most important website domain name as well for the expansion of the Meteorite Wiki experiment, meteoritewiki.org. This is to create a non-profit organization for the site should it be a successful endeavor. For now though it will be under the .com extension.

Popularity: 37% [?]

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TubeSat – Launch Your Own Satellite On The Cheap!

August 2nd, 2009 admin

Imagine having your own satellite!

Well, now you can. With the advent of the TubeSat, now you can have your own satellite launched into space in a low orbit around Earth.

According to an article on Spacefellowship.com’s website and on Interorbital.com’s website, Interorbital Systems has created a low cost satellite system that can be launched for an amazingly low cost of only $8000. Now this may seem lile a lot of money to you and me. But astronomically speaking it’s cheap! Low cost doesn’t even start to decribe it. The space program has spent billions of dollars getting satellites into orbit around the Earth for various scientific study and natianl security projects.

Now you can launch scientific equipment into space much faster and cheaper than ever before. This opens many doors to scientific study and future discoveries by smaller universities that just wasn’t possible in the past. Many scientific institutions that couldn’t afford to launch their own satellite in the past can now have their own personal satellite for all sort of scientific study. The knowledge gained from that study will be invaluable to mankind.

About Tube Sat – The Personal Satellite Kit

The TubeSat also allows the builder to add his or her own experiment or function to the basic TubeSat kit. Examples of add-on experiments or functions include the following:

▼ Earth-from-space video imaging
▼ Earth magnetic field measurement
▼ Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.)
▼ Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.)
▼ On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.)
▼ Tracking migratory animals from orbit
▼ Testing satellite stabilization methods
▼ Biological experiments
▼ On-orbit advertising
▼ Private e-mail

As long as the experiment or function satisfies the volume and mass restrictions, it can be integrated into the TubeSat. These restrictions provide a unique intellectual challenge for the experiment or function designer.

SOURCE: TubeSat

Most times the cost of researching, designing, planning, buliding, implementing, and launching a reaserch satellite into space requires hundreds of thousands of man hours, and millions of dollars just to launch one satellite into space. Now it’ll cost $8000 which is within even the smallest educational institutions budget.

Space Is Within Your Grasp?
This revolutionary device now brings space down to your level. Now the big boys aren’t the only ones who can touch the stars! This puts the vastness of space at your finger tips.

Interorbital Systems has also joined the Google Lunar X-Prize and is on the SENERGY MOON team with InterPlanetary Ventures, the Human Synergy Project.

“…InterPlanetary Ventures, the Human Synergy Project, and Interorbital Systems have joined forces to become SYNERGY MOON, the newest team to enter the Google Lunar X PRIZE race to the Moon…”

SOURCE: GoogleLunarXprize.org

This is certainly an exciting time!

The future of space technology is evolving…

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Platinum Comes From Space!

July 31st, 2009 admin

Apparently the precious metal platinum is from space…

According to a recent report by report author CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship researcher Dr Stephen Barnes they say

“…a steady rain of meteorites created the so-called Late Veneer – a thin surface layer of meteorite debris rich in platinum.”

SOURCE: Extraterrestrial Platinum Was Stirred Into Earth

Hmmm… If platinum comes from space how many other rare and valuable minerals are out there? Gold, silver, copper, or even lead. They are all precious metals. Not too mention the fact that some meteorites have micro-diamonds.

It seems space is much more rich in value than just scientific data. There’s MONEY out there! An when a meteorite falls to Earth you can truthfully say Money Does Come From Heaven!

There are people out there right now who are trying to figure out how to mine asteroids for their abundant resources. Will it happen in our lifetime? Well, we’ve already crashed a probe into a comet and landed one the surface of another. It’s happened already. The only issue is cost. Right now the recovery cost far exceeds the practicality of mining asteroids, comets, others planets, and even our moon. However, given time this will change, technology will advance, and the means of receovery will be invented. Innovation progresses, and rare minerals are certainly a viable commodity, even if they are in space.

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Fireball Data Will Be Shared!

July 31st, 2009 admin

NATURE NEWS: FIREBALL DATA WILL BE AVAILABLE AGAIN

Published online 8 July 2009 | Nature 460, 163 (2009) News in Brief

US Air Force will continue to share meteor data

The United States Air Force says that it will resume sharing data on incoming meteors with astronomers. The Air Force collects the data with a network of satellites and sensors designed as a missile early warning system. For more than a decade, it provided them to astronomers on an ad-hoc basis, but the informal relationship came to a halt earlier this year (see Nature 459, 896-897; 2009). Astronomers feared that the Air Force had put a stop to the practice, but “the data will still flow”, says Andy Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Air Force is developing procedures for releasing data that will be faster, more systematic and in compliance with classification procedures. Data sharing could resume within the next few months.

SOURCE: News Article: Big Impact on Jupiter.

Popularity: 29% [?]

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NASA Finds Possible Meteorite On Mars! Opportunity Rover Photos

July 31st, 2009 admin

Possible Meteorite Imaged by Opportunity Rover

NASA’s Mar’s rover Opportunity has imaged hate experts believe could be a meteorite.

July 31, 2009

The Opportunity rover has eyed an odd-shaped, dark rock, about 0.6 meters (2 feet) across on the surface of Mars, which may be a meteorite.

The team spotted the rock called “Block Island,” on July 18, 2009, in the opposite direction from which it was driving. The rover then backtracked some 250 meters (820 feet) to study it closer.

Scientists will be testing the rock with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to get composition measurements and to confirm if indeed it is a meteorite.

Possible Meteorite Found On Mars By Opportunity Rover NASA Image: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2251

Possible Meteorite Found On Mars By Opportunity Rover NASA Image: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2251

Mars Opportunity Rover Photo Of Possible Meteorite Found on Mars Surface

Mars Opportunity Rover Photo Of Possible Meteorite Found on Mars Surface

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