2002 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Scientists say Earth formed faster than had been thought
Author: RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press Writer Date: August 28, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists have found evidence that Earth made its final step to planet status about 30 million years earlier than previous research had suggested.
Working independently, two groups of scientists analyzed meteorites that contain telltale clues about planetary formation and compared them to rocks from Earth. Both teams reached the same conclusion: Earth's metallic core formed about 30 million years after the solar system's birth.
The findings contrast with...
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Scientists find impact crater buried off England's eastern seaboard
Author: The Associated Press Date: July 31, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
With unprecedented detail, scientists have mapped a small but well-preserved crater formed by a meteorite they believe smacked into Earth 60 to 65 million years ago.
The impact crater, buried beneath the North Sea's rich oil and gas fields off England's eastern seaboard, measures about six miles wide and sits beneath 120 feet of seawater and more than 900 feet of sediment. Researchers believe the so-called Silverpit crater was formed after the catastrophic impact...
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Four charged in alleged plot to sell stolen moon rocks from the Apollo missions
Author: RACHEL LA CORTE Associated Press Writer Date: July 23, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Three space center employees and another man were charged in an alleged plot to sell stolen moon rocks from the Apollo missions for $1,000 to $5,000 a gram, the FBI said.
A 600-pound safe full of moon rocks and meteorites was stolen from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and officials realized it was missing July 15, space center spokesman Kyle Herring said. It contained lunar samples from every Apollo mission. Undercover FBI agents arrested Thad Roberts, 25, Tiffany Fowler, 22, and...
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Four arrested, accused of stealing moon rocks from Houston space center
Author: RACHEL LA CORTE Associated Press Writer Date: July 23, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Three student employees and another man were charged with stealing a safe full of moon rocks and meteorites from the Johnson Space Center in Houston and trying to sell them, the FBI said Monday.
The items offered for sale by the suspects were kept in a 600-pound safe that was noticed missing July 15, space center spokesman Kyle Herring said. The safe contained lunar samples from every Apollo mission. Undercover FBI agents arrested Thad Roberts, 25, Tiffany Fowler, 22, and Gordon...
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Scientists debate cause of mysterious mile-wide depression in rural Nebraska
Author: KEVIN O'HANLON Associated Press Writer Date: July 21, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A mysterious mile-wide dent in the earth has generated a debate among scientists about whether the depression was the catastrophic creation of a meteorite, or the patient work of Mother Nature.
Wakefield Dort Jr., a retired University of Kansas geology professor, will make his case for the crater's unearthly origin at the annual Meteoritical Society meeting in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Nebraska scientists have their doubts.
"It is not a crater. There is no...
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Lowly moon rock -- a piece of U.S. space history -- at center of court fight
Author: CATHERINE WILSON Associated Press Writer Date: June 29, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
In a cross between science fiction and a children's tale, a moon rock gets dug up from its peaceful valley, flies aboard Apollo 17 to Earth, visits Honduras and winds up in a U.S. court.
"It's one of these curious little cases," said Keith Rosenn, a University of Miami law professor recruited by the judge as a consultant on Honduran law. "But it is a real case with grown men arguing about it." The extensively...
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Chiropractor offers piece of sacred meteorite to Oregon Indian tribes
Author: JEFF BARNARD Associated Press Writer Date: February 14, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
David Wheeler read about the impending auction: Two chips from the Willamette Meteorite, a 15 1/2-ton rock considered sacred by an Indian tribe but ensconced in a New York museum for decades, were to be sold off.
He thought maybe he could offer a little healing. Wheeler, an Oregon chiropractor, paid $3,375 for the thumbnail-sized piece of the colossal meteorite and is donating it to the tribe.
"I have a lot of respect for the native cultures," Wheeler...
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Chiropractor offers piece of sacred meteorite to Oregon Indian tribes

Date: February 13, 2002 Publication: Associated Press Archive
An Oregon chiropractor paid $3,375 for a thumbnail-sized piece of a 15 1/2-ton meteorite and is donating it to an Indian tribe that holds the big rock to be sacred.
David Wheeler bought the sliver at an auction last weekend in Tucson, Ariz. The gray piece is from the colossal Willamette Meteorite, which is displayed in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Wheeler said he is donating the fragment because "I have a lot of respect for the native...
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2001 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Sugar compounds found in meteorites; bolsters theory that ingredients of life came from outer space
Author: ALEX DOMINGUEZ Associated Press Writer Date: December 19, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Sugar compounds, an indispensable ingredient for life today, have been found in meteorites, bolstering the theory that chunks of rock from outer space delivered the materials that gave rise to life in Earth. Another key ingredient, amino acids, has already been found in meteorites. George Cooper of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., said that while it has not been proved that meteorites delivered the materials that led to life, the discovery means... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Researchers says NASA's Mars researchers have failed to prove case for bacteria fossils in Martian meteorite
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: November 20, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive A group of researchers say NASA scientists have failed to prove their contention that a Mars meteorite contains evidence of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. A group led by Peter R. Buseck of Arizona State University said that the NASA researchers have inadequate evidence showing that tiny crystalline structures in Mars meteorite ALH84001 were formed by bacteria billions of years ago as the rock was sitting on the Martian surface. A study with Buseck as the first author appears... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Asteroid photos show complex surface with dust 'ponds' likely formed after impacts, researchers say
Author: WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer Date: September 26, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Photos taken by the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid show a landscape littered with boulders, small rocks and other debris that appear to have partly eroded and settled into mysterious "ponds" of thick dust, researchers say. The photos taken by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, called NEAR, add evidence to the theory that even the weak gravity of an asteroid can hold on to much of the flying debris created when struck by another object such as... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Geologists scour Colorado countryside for remnants of meteor seen from Idaho to New Mexico
Author: JUDITH KOHLER Associated Press Writer Date: August 30, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Geologist Jack Murphy is in hot pursuit of remnants of a fireball spotted in the Western skies. Murphy heads a team of meteor hunters at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science that is chasing reports of a white ball described as up to 40 times brighter than the moon. Data from an acoustic tracking system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico suggest the meteor weighed roughly a ton and plummeted toward earth at 11.25 miles a second on Aug. 17. ... Click here for complete article ($1.50)


Newly discovered Mars meteorite could be window into Red Planet
Author: ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer Date: June 16, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A fist-sized meteorite, one of only 18 rocks on Earth known to have come from Mars, has been found by Swiss scientists in the Oman desert -- a prize discovery that could help determine if the planet ever sustained life.
Scientists at the University of Bern announced the find Friday and said they are just beginning to examine the meteorite. Most of the other 17 Martian rocks have been snapped up by collectors, they said, so few are fully available for study. "I suspected from...
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Meteorites from moon, Mars found
Date: April 8, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Researchers have discovered two new examples of the rarest space rocks found on Earth: meteorites from the moon and Mars.
The two rocks are the 15th and 17th meteorites to be found from the moon and Mars, respectively, making them the least common among the estimated 22,000 meteorites discovered on this planet. News of the discoveries was announced this month and will be reported in the July 2001 bulletin of the Meteoritical Society, an international organization devoted to the study of...
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Meteorite disappoints scientists after a year-long study
Author: The Associated Press Date: April 6, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
To scientists' disappointment, a meteorite that fell on a frozen Canadian lake has been found to contain none of the organic ingredients believed necessary to have initiated life on Earth.
Many scientists believe that simple life arose on Earth more than 4 billion years ago after meteorites crashed through the atmosphere, carrying amino acids and other biochemical compounds from outer space. The fragments of a 220-ton meteorite that were sprinkled on Tagish Lake in British...
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Study: Crystal in meteorite proves life once existed on Mars
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 27, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A crystal found in a meteorite from Mars could only have been formed by a microbe and may be evidence of the oldest life form ever found, researchers say.
Scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston say that a crystalized magnetic mineral, called magnetite, found in a Martian meteorite is similar to crystals formed on Earth by bacteria. "I am convinced that this is supporting evidence for the presence of ancient life on Mars," said Kathie Thomas-Keprta, an...
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Researchers say crystal in meteorite proves life once existed on Mars
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 27, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A controversial finding that a meteorite from Mars might contain evidence of life has been boosted by the discovery of a magnetic crystal that researchers say could have been made only by a microbe.
In a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston say a crystalized magnetic mineral called magnetite, found in a Martian meteorite, is similar to crystals formed on Earth by bacteria. "I am...
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Astronomers find key ingredients for formation of life
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 20, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Complex carbon molecules and water, which are key ingredients for life, have been found in the dust and gas around distant stars. The findings boost the theory that the cosmic stew of life is common in the universe.
Astronomers reported Monday that orbiting observatories probing the space around both young and dying stars have found vast waves of water vapor and clear traces of carbon molecules that can play a basic role in organic chemistry. "This strengthens greatly the...
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Japanese team finds 3,554 meteorites in Antarctica
Date: January 23, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Japanese scientists have found 3,554 meteorites in Antarctica during a three-week search, a collection that could yield clues about the rest of our solar system, a government official said Tuesday.
The finds were made around the Yamato mountain range about 186 miles from Japan's base on the rim of Antarctica, said Shigeru Kure of Japan's science ministry. A meteorite is a meteor that survives the destructive effects of a flight through the atmosphere and falls to...
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Meteor / Fireball Report Form

File 13 2010 2009 meteor events

Recent Events!

Meteors, Fireballs, Bolides, Falls in 2010 Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News™ LunarMeteorite*Hunters™ All Rights Reserved (c) 2008-2010 ------------------------------------------

Nova Scotia Fireball 18NOV2010

Serbia Macedonia Large Bolide 12NOV2010

East Coast MASS R.I. NH Meteor 2NOV2010

Quebec City Canada Bolide 2NOV2010 Chickamauga, GA meteor 2OCT2010 TX NM CO*SantanderColumbiaImpact 5SEP2010     France Daytime Fireball--12JUL2010 Pennsylvania Large Bolide 24JUN2010      MD MA PA -- Meteor -- 10MAY2010     Penn., Michigan Fireball 7APR2010     Georgia --- Meteor --- 8MAR2010  Perth Meteorite? Strike 4MAR2010      2009 Meteor/Fireballs/Bolides  Edmonton, CA Fireball 27NOV2009                Carlisle, England Fireball 16MAY09       Pattaya, Thailand Meteor 15MAR09 1MAR2009      Tok, Alaska ---- Bolide ---1JAN092008 Meteor/Fireballs/BolidesMerced, California **Sudan TC3 Asteroid/ite -- 7OCT08 Sulagiri, India Meteor/ite -- 12SEP08 

Yukon Meteor Flash Caught on Film- Photos! 18JAN2000

Yukon Meteor Flash Caught on Film
By Robin Lloyd
Senior Science Writer
posted: 06:37 am ET
28 January 2000

An alert Canadian man snapped an illuminating sequence of photos of the gaseous trail left in Earth's atmosphere minutes after a recent meteor explosion over the Yukon Territory.

The flash occurred around 8:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 18 over the remotely populated stretch of northwestern Canada, said Ewald Lemke, a 63-year-old realtor who posted the images he took on his Atlin Realty Online website. ... [See the original for the photos!]
http://www.space.com/news/yukon_flash_000128.html


Google Search 2010: Tagish Lake Meteorite 18JAN2000

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2000 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Expert: Explosion in sky probably a meteorite
Date: December 27, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A small meteorite's fall to Earth was the likely cause of a sonic boom and streaks of light over southeastern Australia which sparked dozens of calls to police, an expert said Wednesday.
"It is most likely to be a meteorite," said Ian Warren, operations supervisor at the Deep Space Communications Complex in the national capital, Canberra. "The size of the meteorite would probably be about coffee cup size, that would cause a sonic boom and...
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Study: Carbon-rich meteorite may give new clues to origin of life
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: October 12, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
In a search for new clues about the origin of life, researchers worldwide are analyzing bits of a bus-sized meteorite that blazed to Earth last January in a spectacular fireball, giving science the most pristine primordial matter ever recovered.
The meteorite, estimated to weigh about 220 tons when it smashed into the atmosphere, shattered before it hit the ground and sprayed bits of space rock over a frozen lake in Canada's British Columbia. More than 70 eyewitness saw the...
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It came from outer space: Rock that damaged car is a meteorite
Date: July 25, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
It was no ordinary rock that broke Rick Wirth's windshield four years ago. It came from outer space. And it's older than the Earth.
Wirth got confirmation that his rock is a meteorite from a geology professor Monday. In 35 years at the University of Minnesota, professor Paul Weiblen said he has seen thousands of rocks brought in by people who thought they had meteorites. All of them were mere Earth rocks.
But when last month he saw the rock that broke...
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Oregon tribes agree to share sacred meteorite with NYC museum
Author: LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writer Date: June 22, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The heads of the Museum of Natural History and an American Indian group signed an agreement Thursday to share custody of a 10,000-year-old meteorite that's a centerpiece of the museum's new planetarium.
"What a milestone it is to have reached this agreement here," said Kathryn Harrison, chairwoman of Oregon's Grand Ronde Tribal Council, after the deal was finalized at a news conference at the museum. The 16-ton meteorite became...
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Scientist say age of meteorite crystals about 4.57 billion years
Date: June 9, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Salt deposited by ancient space water inside of a meteorite is about 4.57 billion years old and probably crystalized just 2 million years after the birth of the solar system, researchers say.
The salt, or halite, crystals were found within a meteorite called Zag that fell in Morocco in 1998. Similar halite crystals were reported last year inside of a meteorite that fell in Monahans, Texas. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Manchester...
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Museum: Tribe has no claim to meteorite
Date: February 29, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The American Museum of Natural History argues that Oregon Indians have no claim to a 15 1/2-ton meteorite that the museum has owned for 94 years and is the centerpiece of a showy new building.
The museum on Monday asked a federal court to reject a claim filed in September by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, which contends the meteorite is a sacred object and should be returned under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The iron...
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Museum says Oregon Indian tribe has no claim to meteorite
Date: February 28, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The American Museum of Natural History argued Monday that Oregon Indian tribes have no claim to a 15 1/2-ton meteorite that the museum has owned for 94 years.
The museum asked a federal court to reject a claim filed in September by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, which contends the meteorite is a sacred object and should be returned under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The iron meteorite crashed into Earth some 10,000 years...
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Tribe demands meteorite at center of new planetarium
Author: JOHN JURGENSEN Associated Press Writer Date: February 19, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A group of American Indians says a 16-ton meteorite that will be the main attraction at the Museum of Natural History's new planetarium is a holy tribal object and should be returned to Oregon.
The meteorite -- about the size of a small car -- was ready for display at the opening of the planetarium's main hall today. The meteorite hit Earth more than 10,000 years ago and was moved by glacial ice to a hillside in West Linn, Ore. The Clackamas tribe adopted it as a...
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Astronomers find complex organic molecules in space
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 12, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A primordial soup of complex organic chemicals that could be the precursors of life is cooked up very quickly after the birth of stars, new research suggests.
"Life could have had an easier time starting than we thought before," astronomer Sun Kwok said Wednesday at a national meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Kwok, of the University of Calgary, Canada, said a study by the Infrared Space Observatory showed that large organic molecules evolve within...
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1999 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Australian authorities meteorite likely damaged reservoir
Date: December 10, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive An object that crashed into an Australian reservoir was most likely a meteorite the size of a golf ball, authorities said Friday. After signs that something had fallen into a reservoir, officials shut off the water supply to the nearby town of 235 miles north of Sydney. Police set up barricades and scientists carrying Geiger-counters were called in to investigate. The mystery made national news reports Thursday and triggered calls to radio talk shows from people offering... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Water droplets in meteorite may date to beginning of solar system
Date: September 8, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Tiny water droplets found in a meteorite may date to the beginning of the universe, a NASA researcher said. Droplets about one-tenth the width of a human hair were discovered in the so-called Zag meteorite, a 300-pound rock that broke into pieces when it struck a remote area of Morocco. The droplets could be billions of years old. Michael Zolensky, the space agency researcher who found water in both the Zag and another meteorite that fell in West Texas last year, said the discoveries... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Tiny water droplets may date to beginning of solar system
Date: September 7, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive Tiny water droplets that could be billions of years old were found in a meteorite, the second found with water, a NASA researcher said. Droplets about one-tenth the width of a human hair were found in the so-called Zag meteorite, a 300-pound rock that broke into pieces when it struck a remote area of Morocco. The water may date to the beginnings of the universe. Michael Zolensky, the space agency researcher who found water in both the Zag and another meteorite that fell in West... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Water found in meteorite offers chance for discovery
Date: August 27, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists who cracked open a meteorite that fell to earth last year found tiny pockets of briny water, providing the first close look at water not originating on earth, according to an article in the journal Science. While astronomers have long thought that water flowed through asteroids and other bodies formed at the beginning of the solar system, the meteorite's liquid cargo offered the first chance to actually study it in a lab. "The existence of a... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Water found in meteorite offers chance for discovery
Date: August 27, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A rock that fell from the sky to land in a West Texas yard contained a remarkable surprise -- water from the far reaches of space. The researchers who opened the meteorite discovered tiny pockets of briny water, providing the first close look at water not originating on earth, according to an article in the journal Science. "The existence of a water-soluble salt in this meteorite is astonishing," wrote R. N. Clayton of the University of Chicago, who was not... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Scientists look for more water from space
Author: DAVID HO Associated Press Writer
Date: August 27, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Having found water in a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite, NASA scientists are searching for more that may have been overlooked in other space rocks.
The water, locked in a purple crystalline mineral called halite -- or rock salt -- remained uncontaminated by the Earth's atmosphere because scientists studied the meteorite quickly, less than 46 hours after it fell, said Everett Gibson, the NASA scientist who retrieved the space rock last year from the West Texas town of...
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Study: Direct evidence of early oxygen-producing organisms
Author: MATTHEW FORDAHL AP Science Writer
Date: August 5, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The earliest direct evidence of organisms pumping oxygen into Earth's atmosphere has been found in the ancient remains of bacterial slime that turned up in Australia, researchers reported today.
The 2 1/2 billion-year-old molecular fossils show that early forms of life began paving the evolutionary path for oxygen-breathing animals at least 700 million years earlier than previously known. "Life wouldn't be what it is today if we didn't...
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Scientists find direct evidence of early oxygen-producing organisms
Author: MATTHEW FORDAHL AP Science Writer Date: August 4, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The earliest direct evidence of organisms pumping oxygen into Earth's ancient atmosphere has been found in the fossilized remnants of bacterial slime, according to research that also gives scientists a new tool in the hunt for life on Mars.
The 2 1/2 billion-year-old molecular fossils from Australia show that early forms of life began paving the evolutionary path for oxygen-breathing animals at least 700 million years earlier than previously known, researchers said in...
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Most of space rock that dug Arizona crater melted on impact, study shows
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: July 1, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Most of the space boulder that smashed to Earth to create Meteor Crater in Arizona melted upon impact 50,000 years ago and sprayed molten material in every direction.
A study appearing Friday in the journal Science concludes that an iron meteor 100 feet in diameter and weighing about 60,000 tons sailed in from space at almost 45,000 miles an hour and smashed into the desert floor near Winslow, Ariz. The collision erupted with the force of a 20 megaton bomb and sprayed molten rock for...
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Curiosities abound in Smithsonian's backrooms
Author: JOSEPH SCHUMAN Associated Press Writer
Date: April 26, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Nearly everyone's attic has them: heirlooms considered priceless or historical or junk, items that don't quite fit in the living room but stuff you just can't bear to throw away.
But with cast-offs like the Bee Gees' silver lame suits, Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat and several thousand meteorites, the Smithsonian Institution -- with more than 141 million items and just a fraction of the space to display them -- has the rest...
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NASA team: Evidence of fossilized bacteria found in Mars meteorites
Date: March 19, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A pair of Martian meteorites include features that resemble Earth bacteria, according to the same NASA researchers who three years claimed they had evidence of "primitive life on early Mars."
The findings, made within the past six months, were from samples of a 1.3 billion-year-old meteorite that fell to Earth in 1911 near Nakhla, Egypt and a 165 million-year-old meteorite that fell near Shergotty, India in 1865. "My own opinion is that these will...
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NASA team: Evidence of fossilized bacteria found in two other meteorites Date: March 19, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The same NASA team that says it found microbial life in a Martian meteor now claim two other meteors contain similar fossilized remnants.
What appear to be bacteria are contained in two meteorites believed to be from Mars, according to a team led by Johnson Space Center geologist David S. McKay, who presented his findings Thursday at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The NASA team's latest findings, made within the past six months, were from samples of a 1.3...
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Bright light flashing across sky reported in two states
Date: February 2, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A small meteor streaked across the Western sky this morning, startling people from San Francisco to Las Vegas, more than 400 miles away.
"It was bright and blue and really fantastic," one caller told San Francisco radio station KCBS. Radio stations in several other cities, including Santa Barbara and San Bernardino in Southern California, also had people calling in about the mysterious light.
People reported seeing it for about five seconds, at about 6...
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Bright light flashing across sky reported in two states
Date: February 2, 1999 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteor that may have been as big as a Volkswagen streaked across the Western sky Tuesday morning, startling people from Las Vegas to San Francisco.
The mysterious light was described by one caller to a San Francisco radio station as "bright and blue and really fantastic." It was seen for about five seconds around 6 a.m. "You'll see a few of these bright ones in your lifetime," said Jay Goguin, an astronomer at the NASA...
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1998 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Asians look to sky for spectacular meteor storm
Author: DANIEL L. SMITH Associated Press Writer Date: November 18, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Stargazers across Asia huddled in the pre-dawn chill today, admiring the flares of red and white that streaked through the night sky during the greatest meteor shower in decades.
NASA sent up research planes from this U.S. Air Force base in southern Japan in an attempt to glean hints into the origins of life on Earth and the planet's relationship to the cosmos. From Thailand's highest peak to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo, people in Asia -- where meteors...
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Scientists and stargazers watch spectacular meteor storm
Author: DANIEL L. SMITH Associated Press Writer Date: November 18, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Meteors streaked through the skies over Asia in blazes of red and white as the biggest meteor storm in decades reached its climax just before dawn Wednesday.
While stargazers gathered across the globe, NASA scientists boarded planes to get above the clouds over Japan to study the spectacle, which began Monday. From the top of the highest mountain in Thailand, to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo, to the deserts and plains of the United States, people turned their eyes to the skies for...
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APN SUNDAY ILLUSTRATIONS: Subscribers get 1 photo, NY367 of Nov. 17.
Date: November 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
At age 95, chemist dazzled by uses of his decades-old discovery
By BEN DOBBIN Associated Press Writer
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- When he figured out a way to make exceptionally pure glass, chemist Frank Hyde knew his discovery would have myriad applications.
But who, back in 1934, could have foreseen spaceship windows, precision lenses to build ever-so-tiny computer chips, or the gossamer strands of optical fiber?
"I'm surprised at some of the...
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Scientists launch airborne mission to study Leonid meteor shower
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: November 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
From ancient Chinese emperors to crooner Perry Como, stargazers have dreamed of the day they could catch a "falling star."
Physicist Steve Butow isn't just dreaming. He is dispatching a pair of aircraft filled with scientific instruments to examine the Leonid meteor storm as it pelts Earth's atmosphere with fiery debris. The celestial fireworks are expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday, as Earth passes through the long tail of Comet...
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Mir cosmonauts deploy 'meteorite trap' during spacewalk
Author: VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer
Date: November 11, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station deployed a device for studying small meteorite particles and handled more than a dozen other tasks during a six-hour spacewalk that ended early today.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev installed the French-made "meteorite trap," which should collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for mission control. The device will stay...
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Mir cosmonauts take spacewalk to install meteor device
Date: November 11, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station deployed a device for catching small meteorite particles, during a six-hour spacewalk that ended early Wednesday.
The French-made "meteorite trap" will collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for mission control. The device will stay attached to the Mir until 1999, when it will be taken for analysis back to earth early next year.
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Mir cosmonauts prepare for spacewalk to install meteor device
Date: November 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station are heading out into space to mount a French-made device for catching and studying small meteorite particles, a news report said today.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev were to venture into open space late tonight to install the "meteorite trap," which should collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. The device will stay...
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Scientists launch airborne mission to study Leonid meteor shower
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: November 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
From ancient Chinese emperors to crooner Perry Como, stargazers have dreamed of the day they could catch a "falling star."
Physicist Steve Butow isn't just dreaming. He is dispatching a pair of aircraft filled with scientific instruments to examine the Leonid meteor storm as it pelts Earth's atmosphere with fiery debris. This close encounter is the chance of his lifetime. The celestial fireworks are expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday,...
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Mir's crew prepares for micro-meteorite 'rain'
Date: November 3, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The crew of the Mir space station will not face any serious danger when their space outpost enters a cloud of micro-meteorites later this month, space officials said Tuesday.
Just to be safe, however, cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev will board a Soyuz escape capsule permanently attached to the six-module station when the barrage of meteorites peaks in mid-November, said deputy Mission Control chief Viktor Blagov. The "meteorite rain"... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

More evidence found that end of dinosaurs came from the sky
Author: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer
Date: October 29, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists have uncovered more evidence that death from the sky ended the reign of the dinosaurs on earth.
According to a report in Friday's edition of the journal Science, a meteorite or comet produced an element, chromium, found in the layer of the Earth's crust that dates to the dinosaurs' end. An impact by an object six to 12 miles in diameter in what is now the Gulf of Mexico has been the leading candidate among theories explaining why the great...
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Oldest extraterrestrial debris offers clues to early conditions on Earth
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: September 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
It's old dirt, but it's old dirt that scientists can't get enough of.
Cosmic grit that survived a fiery ride from space 1.4 billion years ago has been discovered in a layer of sandstone in Finland, offering a glimpse of conditions on Earth during the earliest stages of life's formation. The micrometeorites are by far the oldest extraterrestrial debris found on this planet, according to the German and Finnish field team, which published its...
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Oldest extraterrestrial debris offers clues to early conditions on Earth
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: September 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Cosmic grit that survived a fiery ride from space 1.4 billion years ago has been discovered in a layer of sandstone in Finland, offering scientists a glimpse at conditions on Earth during the earliest stages of life's formation.
The micrometeorites are by far the oldest extraterrestrial debris found on this planet, according to the German and Finnish field team, which published its discovery in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The particles are known as...
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Meteorite doesn't contain signs of life, researchers say
Author: KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer Date: August 14, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists were mistaken when they thought a potato-sized rock found in Antarctica held evidence suggesting life on Mars, according to three papers in a journal about meteors.
"Orson Welles made us want to believe it," said Derek Sears, editor of Meteoritics and Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. But it's unlikely Martians will ever be involved in anything like Welles' "War of the...
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Mars Meteorite doesn't contain signs of life, researchers say
Author: KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer Date: August 14, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists were mistaken when they thought a rock in Antarctica contained evidence suggesting life on Mars, according to three papers in a journal about meteors.
One article to be published today in Meteoritics and Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas says non-Martian rocks showed the same "evidence" of life. The other articles say temperatures were too high for tiny bacteria to form and leave organic evidence in the nooks and crannies of the 4.5...
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British scientists identify 13th meteorite from Mars
Date: August 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert was positively identified Monday as originating from Mars, British scientists said.
Out of 20,000 found worldwide, the 4.8-pound rock is only the 13th meteorite proven to be from the red planet. Meteorite experts hope this latest discovery, called Lucky 13, will tell scientists more about environmental conditions on Mars and aid in the search for evidence of life on the planet.
"This is another piece in the jigsaw...
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NASA sticks to theory as doubts increase
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: August 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The announcement stunned the world: Scientists had found evidence of life on Mars.
Inside a meteorite from Mars, NASA researchers said, they had discovered the fossilized remains of tiny, bacteria-like animals that may have once thrived on the Red Planet. The idea seized global attention and gave sudden popular legitimacy to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. President Clinton called for a space summit. Famed scientist Carl Sagan called it "a possible turning point in...
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New images show Jupiter moon with crater chain, hints of past ocean
Author: JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer
Date: July 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The latest photos released Wednesday of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, suggest an early ocean beneath its surface from which water was shot through volcanoes.
The photos also show a crater chain created when the Jupiter moon was smacked by 13 comet fragments, which may have helped supply the essential ingredients for life. "We don't know and that's why we're out there looking," said James Head, a Brown...
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Jupiter's moon Ganymede has crater chain, hints of past ocean
Author: JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer
Date: July 15, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
New images show Jupiter's giant moon Ganymede has geologic hints of an early subsurface ocean and a chain of 13 craters that could have come from a broken-up comet.
But scientists still can't say whether life ever existed there. "We don't know and that's why we're out there looking," said James Head, a Brown University planetary scientist. "You have heat, liquid water, organic material coming...
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'Armageddon' has nothing on Manson's extraterrestrial claim to fame
Author: GREG SMITH Associated Press Writer
Date: July 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
As "Armageddon" hits the big screen, it isn't going to make a deep impact among folks here.
After all, they already have their own extraterrestrial claim to fame: a 24-mile wide crater formed some 74 million years ago when a huge meteorite slammed into north-central Iowa and turned the region into a giant killing field. Geologists say it's the second-largest crater in the continental United States and 15th-largest in the world....
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City council sides with boys in meteorite fight
Author: CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press Writer
Date: June 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The city council agrees: It's finders, keepers.
Seven boys who laid claim to a meteorite that crashed near where they played basketball won their fight Tuesday, when the Monahans City Council voted unanimously to let them keep the space rock. The mayor and city manager of this West Texas city had said the rock landed on city property on March 22 and thus belonged to them.
But council members said before their 4-0 vote that it would be heartless not to recognize the...
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Boy finds meteorite, but city officials say 'finders keepers' doesn't apply
Author: CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press Writer
Date: June 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Eleven-year-old Alvaro Lyles says a meteorite that landed in his front yard belongs to him and his family under one of the oldest rules in the book: "finders, keepers."
But city officials are holding on to the soccer ball-sized rock, saying it actually landed on government property. The city council is scheduled to take up the ownership issue at a meeting tonight. Alvaro's father has threatened to sue the city if the meteorite isn't...
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Scientists raise new questions about life in Mars rock
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: June 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A chemical study casts fresh doubt on claims by NASA scientists that a rock from Mars contains evidence of life.
A California research team says a mineral structure inside the meteorite were made by nonbiologic processes, and not by ancient bacteria as proposed by some researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A space agency scientist says the research is flawed and does not prove that microbes never lived inside the rock known as Allen Hills 84001.
The...
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Odds and Ends
Author: The Associated Press Date: May 28, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
"Armageddon" came and went in less than five days. The banner, that is.
Traffic became nightmarish after a 10-story banner for the upcoming film was unveiled in sight of one of the busiest highway interchanges in California. The eye-catching ad, posted on a 15-story building, shows a flaming meteorite flying through the side of a glass office building.
The sign came down Wednesday because no one bothered to get a permit to put it up.
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More fireballs seen in the West; scientists differ on meaning
Author: MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press Writer
Date: February 12, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The phone lines to Denver's Museum of Natural History have been buzzing since a fireball streaked across the Colorado sky last month.
That flash of light, caught on a homeowner's security camera, was not an isolated incident; it was followed by at least four more fireball sightings, said Jack Murphy of the museum's geology department. He hopes to find pieces of the celestial objects for the museum's collection. As new reports of sightings...
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Cosmonauts pitch Space Pens, Russian spacesuits in American TV debut
Author: CHRIS OLERT Associated Press Writer
Date: February 7, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The pen was mightier than the word when late-night television crossed the final shopping frontier early Saturday.
Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station, appearing live on the QVC shopping channel, set out to hawk the American-made $32.75 Fisher Space Pen, used on NASA space flights since 1967 because it can write in the absence of gravity. As they orbited 200 miles above the Earth, a technical problem kept Commander Anatoly Solovyov and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov...
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Shopping heaven -- cosmonauts to hawk Mars rocks, spacesuits on QVC
Author: RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer
Date: February 6, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Just when you thought late-night television couldn't get any weirder, Russian cosmonauts are taking over QVC.
Two cosmonauts will appear on the cable shopping channel live via satellite from the orbiting Mir station Saturday as ex-flight engineer Alexander Lazutkin offers comments from the stage of a New York comedy club. No joke -- the Russians are hawking spacesuits, meteorites and Mars rocks.
Just what they get out of the deal isn't clear. But QVC says...
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In TV shopping orbit: Russian space suits and Mars rocks
Author: RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer Date: February 5, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The glitzy universe of late-night, cable-TV shopping is expanding to include outer space, joining forces with Russia's beleaguered space program to hawk Mars rocks, meteorites and genuine cosmonaut space suits.
QVC, the channel that sold Muhammad Ali's Michigan farm and nearly clinched a deal for the Brooklyn Bridge, has enlisted the help of real cosmonauts from the Mir space station on a program early Saturday. Two cosmonauts will appear live by satellite from...
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Studies say life traces in Mars rock probably came from Earth; NASA scientists disagree
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
NASA scientists who say they found evidence of Martian microbes in a rock that came from Mars are not impressed with two studies that say the rock actually contains organic contaminants from Earth.
In reports published today in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography conclude that amino acids and carbon found in the Mars rock got there after it landed on Earth and lay on Antarctic ice for thousands of years. The...
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Studies: Life traces in Mars rock probably came from Earth
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 15, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Organic chemicals found in a Martian rock may be contamination from Earth and not evidence of life on the Red Planet, new studies suggest. But NASA scientists say the reports "don't shake our belief one bit."
Laboratory studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography conclude that amino acids and carbon found in a rock from Mars probably got there after the rock landed on Earth and lay on Antarctic ice for...
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