The ABC’s of Meteorite Collecting
By Vincent S. Foster
As Colby Navarro sat at his computer on March 26, 2003, he had no idea that a meteorite was about to come crashing through the roof of his Park Forest, Illinois, home, strike his printer, bounce off the wall, and land near a filing cabinet. The rock, about four inches wide, was part of a meteorite shower that swept through the Chicago area, damaging at least six houses and three cars. Scientists said that before the rock broke apart, it was probably the size of a car. Thank heaven for small favors.
Although chances of being hit by a meteorite are slim, it’s estimated that 200 tons of cosmic debris falls to Earth every single day. It rains down in the form of interplanetary dust particles, micrometeorites and chunks of rock. Scientists estimate that some 24,000 stones ranging from just a few grams to many kilograms strike the Earth every year. That’s a bombardment rate of about 40 meteorites per square kilometer over a period of a million years. That’s a lot of meteorites just lying around waiting to be picked up.
If a meteorite is seen to fall by credible observers and later recovered, it is described as a fall. There are perhaps only one or two falls each year. A meteorite discovered after it has been on the ground for some time is known as a find. Both falls and finds are typically named after the town or recognized geological feature nearest their point of discovery.
Most meteorites are leftover debris from the formation of the planets. They originate in the main asteroid belt. But a few specimens were blasted off the Moon or Mars in giant impacts.
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a meteorite come through your ceiling as happened at Park Forest, there are only two ways t...
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...”-like indentations, scoops, or ridges on the meteorite). If the fusion crust in present and intact, the meteorite is more valuable. In regards to the regmaglypts, the deeper the “thumbprints,” the greater the value.
You can buy whole specimens of meteorites, but if your budget is limited you can buy fragments. Fragments can be useful if they show a significant portion of the meteorite’s exterior as well as the interior matrix. Over time you can build a nice collection of meteorites that suits your budget and interest.
These tips are not written in stone. But a little knowledge can go a long way and may even lead to you finding a meteorite. And that is your primary goal when you join in on the fun and excitement this hobby has to offer.
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Vincent S. Foster
37 Brigantine Blvd.
Waretown, NJ 08758
Tel: 609-488-5898
Email: grantfinder1@aol.com
A Climate of Fear “The Gang Crackdown”, provided by PBS, communicates the everyday struggles that the communities of Nassau County face every day. The video’s focus revolves around the homicidal and violent crimes that have been provided by the “MS-13” and the details of cracking down on their development. The Latin American gang from El Salvador is known for their audacity to target the young population of Long Island and their homicidal tendencies. They have targeted children and teenagers at their workplace, their home, and their school. These gang members have left the community defenseless and struck fear into the hearts of many parents along with the government itself.
On the outside it looks like a stereotypical rock, but on the inside you don't really know whether it's actually a rock or a crystal. You need to be open minded and willing to find out.
and Metamorphic rocks can be found. There are also a lot of crusted plates, and violent
... lava flows, vegetation, size and number of craters, and anything else you observe from the satellite images.
are not careful, you could land up with very severe burns, or worse. Some basic
However, asteroids are much more deadly. If over-sized meteor can wreck buildings and injure people, then a normal sized asteroid can easily wipe out species if it lands in the right place. As mentioned before, asteroids are much bigger than meteor and much more rare. According to the “Mail Online” 12,000 years ago some type of asteroid slammed into the Northern Canada and some scientist believe that wiped off the mammoths and caused the “Younger Dryas”. Another famous event of asteroids striking, that many scientist believe, was around 65 million years ago asteroids rained and killed of all the dinosaurs 75% of all the life on earth.
Scientists get a good idea of what asteroids are made of by studying them through telescopes. They can tell what an asteroid is made of by the color and brightness of the asteroid. A lot of asteroids that we have discovered are very dark and made of stone, but there are shiny ones that are made of nickel and iron.
"Space Debris and Human Spacecraft." NASA. NASA, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
It is composed of two elements; oxygen and sulfur. This mineral can either be white in colour, gray, brown, orange, green, red, pink, yellow, beige, or it can be colourless, and the streak that it leaves is white. Based on the Moh’s Hardness scale, Gypsum falls somewhere around the 2 margin. Its lustre is close to that of glass (in properties and in appearance), and is considered vitreous. The cleavage—where it breaks along its line of weakness—is 1,1 – micaceous ; 2,2 and its fracture is uneven. Gypsum is slightly flexible, has low hardness, where it can be scratched by a fingernail, and is sectile (can be cut with a knife). Gypsum is a sedimentary rock, meaning it was formed by cementation at the surface of the Earth near bodies of water; it causes the mineral (gypsum) to settle within the
There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. This debris can travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph. Even a relatively small piece of space debris can damage a satellite or a spacecraft at these speeds. Additionally, there are more than 500,000 pieces...
Space debris are all manmade objects, including their parts and fragments, whether their owners can be recognized or not, in Earth orbit or re-entering the dense layers of the atmosphere that is worthless with no reasonable bated breath of their being able to assume or resume their proposed functions or any other functio...
...official policy of the U.S. has been to minimize the creation of new orbital debris. The most recent National Space Policy in 2010 “addresses the importance of preserving the space environment, including orbital debris mitigation. NASA and the Department of Defense are also directed to pursue research and development of technologies and techniques to mitigate and remove on-orbit debris, reduce hazards, and increase the understanding of the current and future debris environment” (ESA, 2013). Further efforts have been made through NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) located in the U.S., to keep tabs on any piece of debris that classifies as the size of a softball or larger. In closing, there are steps and precautions that can be made when approaching the subject of Space Junk, and like Kessler, all can share in the reassurance that time will heal itself.
Alvarez, a researcher at the University of California, discovered a pencil thin layer of Iridium around the rocks in Gubbio, Italy. (New Scientist, 1) Iridium is an element found in meteorites and asteroids. In 1980 it was proven that the layer if Iridium was evidence of a huge comet or meteorite that crashed into the earth sixty five million years ago. The normal amount of Iridium an area is to have is 0.001 on an average. The layer of Iridium found in Gubbio Italy was 0.003. Thirty times the average amount in parts per million. (New Scientist, 1) The theory of the Alvarez Asteroid states that the strength of this comet is at 10,000 times the explosive power of the global nuclear arsenal. The Alvarez Asteroid theory is the leading explanation as to why the amazing dinosaur creatures died millions of years ago, along with many other animals of the Earth's Crustaceous Period.
• Geologists have discovered meteorites on the earth that have existed for many thousands of millions of years, way before the earth came into existence.