2008 Meteorite News-UPI

2008 Meteorite News- source and links to stories-UPI/AP

DEC 2008
More Canadian meteorite rocks found
LLOYDMINSTER, Alberta, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers raced against winter weather to recover fragments of a 10-ton meteorite that slammed into the province of Alberta.

Scientists find meteor debris in Canada
Date: November 29, 2008 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month.
University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley found several meteor fragments near the Battle River along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. They said there could be thousands of meteorite pieces strewn over a 7-square-mile area of mostly flat, barren land, with...
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Recent meteor strike debris found
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers reported Friday they had found some debris from a 10-ton meteorite in Saskatchewan that lit up western skies last week.

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Witnesses: Large meteor streaks across Canada sky
Date: November 23, 2008 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists say they hope to find remnants of a meteor that brilliantly lit up the sky before falling to earth in western Canada.
University of Calgary planetary scientist Alan Hildebrand called it one of the largest meteors visible in the country in the last decade. Widely broadcast video images showed what appeared to be a speeding fireball Thursday night over Saskatoon that became larger and brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground.
Hildebrand said Friday that he...
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Fiery meteorite wows Western Canada
EDMONTON, Alberta, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- An intensely bright and colorful meteorite lit up the skies over the western Canadian province of Alberta and sparked hundreds of emergency calls to police.

Researchers find ancient meteorite dust
PISA, Italy, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Italian explorers and geologists in the Antarctic report finding the world's largest and oldest cache of meteorite particles.

Sunshield created for the Webb telescope
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've created a sunshield for the James Webb Space Telescope that can withstand severe cold and heat, radiation and meteorite impacts.

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Depression may hike COPD hospitalizations … NASA finds evidence of a wetter Mars … Saliva DNA may solve drug dosing problems … Scientist warns of 'digital dark age' ... Health/Science news from UPI.

NASA finds evidence of a wetter Mars
PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence that liquid water remained on Mars far longer than previously theorized.

Scientists prepare to study Mars samples
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they are preparing for the day when they can study materials returned to Earth from Mars or other planetary bodies.

Aussie diamonds give clues to early life
PERTH, Australia, July 2 (UPI) -- Scientists said diamonds found in Australia may change the accepted time frame for the early evolution of life on Earth.

Physicist: Use nukes against asteroids
MOSCOW, July 1 (UPI) -- A Russian physicist says specially designed nuclear weapons likely would be effective in preventing collisions between the Earth and asteroids.

Study: UV light might find life on Mars
CORVALLIS, Ore., July 1 (UPI) -- U.S. and British scientists say they have developed a method using ultraviolet light that could identify any organic material present in the soil of Mars.

The almanac
UPI Almanac for Monday, June 30, 2008.

Tunguska Event a 100-year-old mystery
MOSCOW, June 26 (UPI) -- Scientists are in Siberia this week to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, a mysterious explosion that flattened millions of trees.

Early genes might have come from the stars
LONDON, June 17 (UPI) -- A British-led study has confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material is extraterrestrial in origin.

Giant meteorite found in Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 13 (UPI) -- A massive meteorite weighing a staggering 2,607 pounds has been found near the northern Swedish village of Kitkiojarvi, officials say.

Mich.-shaped meteorite sells for $20K at auction
Date: June 9, 2008 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteorite resembling Michigan's Lower Peninsula has been sold at auction, but bidders weren't quite as smitten with the mitten as the seller expected.
The 75-pound nickel-and-iron meteorite sold for $20,000 Sunday at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. It had been expected to sell for $32,500 to $40,000. Michigan native Darryl Pitt, the meteorite's owner, says he is disappointed by the low price. He says he thinks the space rock is worth...
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Dinosaur dung, other ancient finds go up for auction in NYC
Date: April 29, 2008 Publication: Associated Press Archive
It may look like a geologic find, but the three-pound red and white fossil heading for auction in New York is actually a pile of dinosaur dung.
Bonhams New York puts the prehistoric deposit up for sale Wednesday along with such items as a 30,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk, a giant beaver skull and a skeleton of a Russian Cave Bear. The dung looks like a rock on the outside and a colorful mineral inside. It's 130 million years old and is expected to sell for between $350...
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Dinosaur poo, meteorites up for auction
NEW YORK, April 28 (UPI) -- A New York auction house says it will hold an auction of meteorites, fossilized dinosaur droppings and other natural history artifacts.

Ind. police: Lights in sky a mystery
KOKOMO, Ind., April 17 (UPI) -- Police in Indiana's Tipton and Howard counties said they have received multiple reports of bright streaks of light in the sky Wednesday night.

Evidence of ancient meteorite strike found
GLASGOW, Scotland, March 29 (UPI) -- Geologists said a seam of stratified rock on the northwest coast of Scotland was formed by a major meteorite strike 1.2 billion years ago.

Peruvian meteorite confounds scientists
HOUSTON, March 12 (UPI) -- A meteorite that hit the earth in the Peruvian countryside last year should have never made it through the atmosphere, scientists say.

Canadian astronomers tape meteor fall
LONDON, Ontario, March 11 (UPI) -- Canadian astronomers at the University of Western Ontario are hunting for pieces of a meteorite they videotaped falling to Earth.

Comet dust resembles asteroid
LIVERMORE, Calif., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists said comet dust brought back by NASA's Stardust resembles a meteorite from the asteroid belt rather than an unaltered comet.
2008 Meteorite News-UPI


Researcher: Devastating asteroid that exploded over Russia was smaller than once thought
Author: SUE MAJOR HOLMES Associated Press Writer
Date: January 29, 2008 Publication: Associated Press Archive
An asteroid that exploded over Siberia a century ago, leaving 800 square miles of scorched or blown down trees, wasn't nearly as large as previously thought, a researcher concludes, suggesting a greater danger for Earth.
According to supercomputer simulations by Sandia National Laboratories physicist Mark Boslough, the asteroid that destroyed the forest at Tunguska in Siberia in June 1908 had a blast force equivalent to one-quarter to one-third of the 10- to 20-megaton range...
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