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By admin, April 16, 2010 1:38 pm

Here’s a link to a good article about the meteorite that fell in Wisconsin 2 days ago:

Huge Fireball Seen Over 7 Midwest States

The first piece has been found, and more are sure to be found in the next few days. Check out the youtube video at the bottom of the article – that’s what the fireball looked like. It was big enough to be seen over a large area, and it shook the ground. After you watch the video, scroll up and look at the piece again. Notice that most of it has a dark, melted exterior – that’s known as fusion crust. Bigger pieces will be found soon.

By the way, you should ignore most of the comments people are leaving in that article.

1. This was not a satellite or anything “man-made”. This was a textbook meteorite fall. Every year, several like this are witnessed and then found.
2. This was not ball lightning. Again, this is a textbook meteorite fall. A fresh, confirmed meteorite has already been found.
3. This doesn’t indicate that anything is disturbing the Oort cloud or that a “planet killer” is coming. Geez. Come on, people.

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By admin, August 25, 2009 10:54 am

Occasionally, I like to search Twitter for meteorite or meteorites.  Last night, a bunch of people in Canada suddenly started talking about meteorites.  A large meteor was seen – also known as a fireball or bolide.

Those of us in the meteorite hobby know that when someone says they saw a meteorite fall “nearby”, it could mean almost anything – there is a common confusion between distance and angular distance.  Still, with this many witnesses, it’s certainly possible that something reached the ground last night.

Below, I’ve compiled some of the highlights from Twitter.  I’ve used ellipsis to indicate multiple tweets from the same user.

OTerry Just saw a massive firery meteorite fall in north york. I wonder where it landed. It was either really big or very close.

derekpurdy Saw an amazing meteor in the sky tonight it was lit up for a second or two. Bright Green/blue watched it break up, amazing. #Meteor #Ontario … it was something else! Never seen a meteor like that. Wow, all I can say is wow. (user is at 44.264135, -78.064328)

ChaiLatteAddict I think I just a meteor! It made a bang and it fell from the sky and it was blue-ish/green-ish. Please tell me how to confirm this! … @ptc555 I saw it east of the west part of Montreal, so it make sense we saw the same thing if you’re in Ont. Thank god you saw it too! … Meteor sighting in Canada. I’m thinking about going home to watch the news all night. I wanna know where it fell and how big it is! … I love the power of Twitter, we all saw something thinking we were crazy but we talk about it and it’s an amazing feeling.

markdelete i totally saw that possible meteor tonight in the sky. blue flash with red center. pretty crazy.

jsat2028 @argusrocks Hi, I saw it land! It was as high as a telephone pole when I saw it I was no more than 20 yards away. Report it, to who? … I could see the ripples from the heat it was blue, looked like a force field, and the head was a fireball.

mackaytaggart @kentboniface I work at a talkradio station in Toronto….we’re getting a lot of calls about the meteorite. Where were you when you saw it? … @MitchMirsky I work @ a Toronto radio station. Getting lots of calls from listeners who reported seeing it. May have landed in Barrie ON.

kentboniface Just saw a meteorite large enough to light up the entire sky. Looked like lightning, but not a cloud in the sky.

MitchMirsky Driving home tonite, we saw a meteorite land about 300 yards away.

ellehether saw the most breathtaking meteor tonight! blue, green and orange! it was hugeeee!

ptc555 @colorsounds you saw the meteorite in rochester? i saw it in toronto! … @mackaytaggart i saw the meteorite from Etobicoke (royal york and eglinton). i was looking north.

colorsounds Falling meteorite in #roc, burned green, about 8:50pm, very big and bright!

LouisSabourin @argusrocks I saw at about 9 pm a meteorite: very impressive from Gatineau Qc was looking south-west: Ottawa, maybe

M_A_R_A #meteor saw a giant bal of fire at St. Clair & Ossington….it was awesome!

DGConroy Saw the meteor come across at Yonge and Eg… looked very close! (user is at 43.646557, -79.388714)

itemtrader I just the the meteor to ! thought i was crazy – it was bright

craigebrown I too saw a meteor flash across the sky. Very quick, very bright.

vdiddy1103 I just saw a shooting star…or a comet…or a meteor. I wish Astronomy wasn’t boring as f—, maybe I would have learned something.

sarahhp89 May Have Just Seen Some Sort Of Meteor Flash :0 Stoked!

fadersmusic Decided to go investigate am old haunted hotel called the regal constellation and witnessed a very impressive meteor fireball in the skies

ChrisDawe Holy poo. Just saw what had to be a meteor burning up over Toronto! Anyone else see it?

CopySix Just saw a small meteorite (shooting star) come down from my Barrie backyard – so close you could actually ‘hear’ it.

nevdawg @ChaiLatteAddict I saw it from Milton, just south of Toronto. Pretty incredible.

BenTFleming holy s—, I just saw a meteor crash.

memories_music Just saw a meteorite!!!

dvasmusique holy shit comet in toronto! #toronto … yeah i saw it … spectacular … i was on my way to District 9 and i saw it over my apt. building on queen near bellwoods

So, will anything be found?  It couldn’t hurt to look!  If anyone has more information about this sighting, please contact me.  If anything is found, I’m going to call this “the Twitter meteorite”.

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By admin, August 21, 2009 12:11 am

Lately I’ve noticed several suspected meteorites getting attention in the press.  The story usually goes like this – someone finds a funny looking rock, somebody tells them it must be a meteorite, and they go to the local newspaper or TV station.

Of course, thanks to the internet, there’s no such thing as a “local” newspaper anymore.  The stories are instantly posted online, giving meteorite collectors around the world their first glimpse of these suspected meteorites.  And, of course, we see that they aren’t meteorites at all.

Here are three recent examples:

• July 29th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Whiteford, PA, USA
• August 12th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Spokane Valley, WA, USA
• August 20th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Barnstable, England

Now, I don’t blame people for mistaking Earth rocks for meteorites.  It’s understandable.  What I don’t understand is why newspapers and TV stations give attention to these stories.  If a confirmed meteorite were found, that would certainly be newsworthy.  On the other hand, if there is a funny looking rock that nobody has analyzed, then why jump to conclusions?  If the rock hasn’t been looked at by someone who knows meteorites, then why is it a news story at all?

Of the three news stories I linked to above, the first one is the most forgivable – it took place in an area where a meteorite is believed to have fallen last month.  The second article is skeptical, which is a step in the right direction.  The third article, though, is the worst offender.  There is no mention of anyone with experience taking a look at the rock, but it is confidently referred to as a “meteorite” nonetheless (not even a “suspected meteorite”!).  The newspaper then makes several references to the recent Perseid meteor shower, as if it somehow supports their claim.  Someone should tell them that meteorites don’t come from annual meteor showers.

To my eye, none of these rocks look anything like a meteorite.  Of course, anything is possible – perhaps each of these finds is a brand new classification, never seen before by collectors.  I would be happy to be proven wrong and have one of these turn out to be the real deal!  But until then, it’s just not news in my opinion.  (Of course, I realize the irony in drawing attention to these stories that I say aren’t newsworthy.)

One last thing: in the “Resources” section of this site, I recently added a page about what to do if you think you’ve found a meteorite.  I left out the part about calling your local news station.

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By admin, August 5, 2009 7:59 pm

While looking for the latest meteorite news today, I noticed an article from the Whitecourt Star titled “Digging For Meteorites”.  Apparently, the University of Alberta set up a meteorite hunt last week for the general public.  Notice this quote from the article:

Based on the premise that the best way to protect a provincial treasure is to educate the public, Herd and Kafman invited up to 20 volunteers to join them at the site and dig for meteorites.

What a great idea!  I wish more universities had this kind of interest in meteorites.  The University of Alberta even has an informative website about the Whitecourt crater.

I’ve never seen pieces of this meteorite for sale before – probably because the crater is a protected area.  Still, there’s a good amount of information online about it.  Naturally, I decided to check the Meteoritical Bulletin first:

Whitecourt

Alberta, Canada
Find: 1 July 1 2007
Iron, medium octahedrite (IIIAB)

History: Four small fragments were found buried adjacent to a circular depression by two local residents using a metal detector. The circular depression was subsequently confirmed as a 36 m diameter Late Holocene impact crater based on morphology, identification of impact ejecta and crater fill, and presence of impact melt (C. Herd and D. Froese, University of Alberta), and further fragments were recovered.

Physical characteristics: The meteorite consists of 74 samples with a total mass of 5372 g. The samples were found buried up to 25 cm and have a red-brown exterior.

Sounds good to me. The article says Dr. Herd is working on setting up a public display of some of the meteorites they’ve been finding.  I’m glad someone like this is on the case!  This could wind up being a really good tool for meteorite outreach/education.