2004 Meteor/Meteorite News-UPI

2004 Meteor/Meteorite News-
Source: links and text-UPI/AP newswires

Streak of light startles central Florida
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 19 (UPI) --

In the Stars: Titan's critical secret
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew closer to Saturn's giant moon Titan on Monday than any other device built by humans. The mission, in one of the far corners of the solar system, is attempting to answer a very large, critical question -- does life exist anyw

Colo. family finds softball-size meteorite
BERTHOUD, Colo., Oct. 12 (UPI) --


Residents report bright lights in sky over at least five states
Date: July 8, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteor shower Wednesday night lit up the sky from Texas to western Tennessee, prompting a flood of reports to law enforcement officers throughout a five-state region.
The lights flashed across the sky shortly after 9 p.m. in portions of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the spotting was a meteorite, probably several.
"The front part was fiery red and it had a greenish glow behind it and a...
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Meteorite-Washington
Date: June 3, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
SEATTLE -- Withhold BC-Meteorite-Washington. The identity of the source of the story cannot be confirmed.
The AP ...
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Flashes, booms reported over western Washington state; officials say meteor possible source
Date: June 3, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Bright flashes and sharp booms were reported in the skies over the Puget Sound area early Thursday, and experts said a meteor or falling "space junk" may have been the source.
Nothing unusual was detected on National Weather Service radar, and authorities also ruled out aircraft problems or military flight tests. Toby Smith, a University of Washington astronomy lecturer who specializes in meteorites, said scientists were looking into the cause of the skybursts...
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Meteor lights up sky over western Washington state
Author: TIM KLASS Associated Press Writer
Date: June 3, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteor about the size of a computer monitor flashed across the Northwest sky early Thursday, setting off booms that stunned witnesses.
"There was some question as to whether it was a piece of space junk burning up, but it was not," said Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. "As far as I've been able to figure out, it was simply a rock falling out of the sky, as they are wont to do on...
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Scientists find signs of ancient crater possibly linked to mass extinction
Author: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer
Date: May 13, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Millions of years before the dinosaurs vanished, an even bigger mass extinction wiped out more than 90 percent of the species on Earth. Now scientists think they may have evidence of an impact crater that contributed to the "Great Dying."
The Permian-Triassic Extinction took place some 250 million years ago in a vastly different world from today. Scientists have debated its cause for years. The end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is widely thought to have...
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New mineral from the moon discovered, named
Author: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer
Date: April 26, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A chunk of the moon that landed on Earth as a meteorite contains a new mineral, which scientists have named after a researcher who years ago predicted the unusual process that formed the material.
Grains of the material, made of iron and silicon, were found in pieces of a meteorite that was discovered in Oman on the Saudi peninsula, said Lawrence A. Taylor of the University of Tennessee, a member of the research team that reported the find. The process that led to the...
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Scientists say giant meteorite struck western Wisconsin millions of years ago
Author: JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
Date: April 26, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The muddy brown hills and rolling farmland here look like others in Wisconsin. Tall grasses, cornfields and a bubbling brook yield to rocky outcroppings and rows of trees.
But scientists years ago saw something different about those rocks and concluded an ancient catastrophic event occurred here, although what type of calamity remained a mystery. They believe they have finally solved the puzzle: A 650- to 700-foot meteorite crashed into the earth at speeds up to 67,500 mph.
The...
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Robot rover on Mars finds evidence that rocks were soaked in water in past
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: March 3, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Mars may once have been a wet place where life could flourish, according to NASA scientists who say a robot rover has found evidence that rocks on the Red Planet "were once soaked with liquid water."
"The ground would have been suitable for life," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the lead investigator for science instruments on the rover Opportunity. "That doesn't mean life was there. We don't...
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Robot rover on Mars finds evidence that rocks were soaked in water in past
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: March 2, 2004 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Water percolating through the soil once created a friendly environment that would have been ideal for life to flourish on Mars, NASA scientists say.
It not known how long this environment lasted or if any organism actually developed. But scientists directing robot rovers prowling the Martian surface said Tuesday the evidence now is clear that some rocks "were once soaked with liquid water." "The ground would have been suitable for life,"...
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