Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada Meteor of March 5, 2008 One Year Ago

Photo by Univ. of Western Ontario, CAO-RASC (c)2008
Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada Meteor--March 5, 2008 at 10:59 p.m. EST

Anyone have any updates concerning meteorite finds from this meteor? Please comment on this post if you have any information. Thank you.

Western astronomers on hunt for meteor
By Communications Staff Friday, March 7, 2008
Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario have captured rare video of a meteor falling to Earth, and are hoping to enlist the help of local residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have crashed in the Parry Sound area.

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The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in Southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. Associate Professor Peter Brown, who specializes in the study of meteors and meteorites, says that Wednesday evening (March 5) at 10:59 p.m. EST these cameras captured video of a large fireball and the department has also received a number of calls and emails from people who actually saw the light. Brown along with Wayne Edwards, a post doctorate student, are now working to get the word out among interested people who may be willing to see if they can spot any fallen meteorites. “Most meteoroids burn up by the time they hit an altitude of 60 or 70 kilometres from Earth," says Edwards. “We tracked this one to an altitude of about 24 kilometres so we are pretty sure there are at least one, and possibly many meteorites, that made it to the ground." Edwards says the lab can narrow the ground location where the meteorite would have fallen, to about 12 square kilometres and have created a map that may assist in locating the meteorite. The rock, or rocks, would probably weigh a kilogram or slightly more. “We would love to find a recovered meteorite on this one, because we have the video and we have the data and by putting that together with the meteorite, there is a lot to be learned." Wayne Edwards is available for interviews and/or to report finds at 519-850-2385. He can also be reached via email at wedwards@uwo.ca If you would like to receive a 14-mb video file of the meteor in avi format, maps or an image, please reply to this email address.

Reply Comment by Mark Langenfeld:
While I have heard nothing further, the linked maps suggest whatever survived may have splashed into Georgian Bay.

Reply Comment by Patrick Herrmann:
Nothing had been recovered from that fall. The stones fell too far out in Georgian Bay, and the ice was too thin to go by snowmobile. Point-au-Baril is what they ended up calling the potential strewn field.I was trying to get a helicopter lined up to go and look for some stones, but then, about a week or so after the fireball, there was another snowstorm, and that was it.

Tamarind the Australian dog proves Martian life 3MAR09

Australian dog proves Martian life

A dog trained to sniff out sewage-scented meteorites may have found evidence that life once existed on Mars, a discovery that could have saved NASA the expense of sending probes.
The Dingo-Kelpie mongrel picked out the unpleasant aroma of bacteria in mud from Queensland bacteria that matched fossils of primitive organisms in Martian rock that plunged into Antarctica 13,000 years ago.
Known as Tamarind to biophysicist owner Tony Taylor, the Australian dog could have saved NASA the bother of sending probes to the red planet - if only it had sniffed around filth in Moreton Bay sooner.
And NASA scientists who examined the potato-sized meteorite discovery, called ALH84001, agree this may well be proof that life really did exist on Mars.

Well-trained
Taylor said Tamarind came along on all his field trips, so training him to smell out sediments containing specific bacteria was quite easy. "It smells like sewage and she knows the word 'stinky'."
Based at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney, Taylor says he and colleague Professor John Barry have examined 82 different bacteria, retrieved from the area identified by the dog.
"When we say life, we're talking about bacteria, single cell primitive life forms, like we have here on Earth. It'd be underground, we'd have to drill down, so these little rovers that are crawling all over the surface would never find it" Tony Taylor,biophysicist.
They discovered they contained 11 characteristics also found in the Mars fossils, including a structure other scientists claimed could only be formed in intense heat.
"They were a perfect match, absolutely perfect. Eleven features out of 11," said Taylor, whose work, crediting Tamarind, was published on Thursday in the "Journal of Microscopy".
"These fossils are four billion years old. They pre-date the fossil record of life here on Earth."

Imaging technique
The bacteria-studying duo developed an imaging technique that allowed them to examine the bacteria at a much higher resolution - and they were delighted with the findings.
The scientists now believe the combined data warrant a manned mission to Mars to retrieve further samples.
"The results indicate very strongly that life was once there and... that life might still be there," Taylor said. "When we say life, we're talking about bacteria, single cell primitive life forms, like we have here on Earth."
"It'd be underground, we'd have to drill down, so these little rovers that are crawling all over the surface would never find it."
Two US-backed rovers are now exploring the red plant and transmitting unprecedented images of the barren landscape, but may achieve little else.

Source:Reuters
Last modified: 30/01/2004 15:30:59

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Tardigrades Space Travel on Meteorites Might Work 2MAR09

Eight-Legged Tardigrades Space Survivor Gives 'Panspermia' New Life

By Robert Roy Britt

Senior Science Writer
posted: 16 September 200806:54 am ET

The revelation last week that tiny eight-legged animals survived exposure to the harsh environment of space on an Earth-orbiting mission is further support for the idea that simple life forms could travel between planets.

This idea, called panspermia, is not new. It holds that the seeds of life are everywhere, and that microbial life on Earth could have traveled here from Mars or even from another star system, and then evolved into the plethora of species seen today. In essence, we may all be Martians.
In various forms, the panspermia concept was discussed among scientists in the 1700s, again in the 1800s, and then notably when Sir Fed Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe popularized it about 30 years ago. Mainstream scientists often dismissed the hypothesis, however, even into the 1990s.
But new life has been breathed into the idea in the past decade. ...

For the full story:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080916-st-space-life.html

Near Earth Asteroid to Fly By Earth 2MAR09

Space Weather News for March 2, 2009
http://spaceweather.com
ASTEROID FLYBY:
There's no danger of a collision, but newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 will come close enough today when it flies by our planet 72,000 km (0.00048 AU) away. That's only twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite. The asteroid measures 30 to 40 meters across, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908. Closest approach occurs at approximately 1340 UT (5:40 am PST) on March 2nd. Experienced amateur astronomers may be able to photograph the space rock shining like an 11th magnitude star as it races through the constellations Hydra and Virgo. The timing favors observers in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and east Asia.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for updates and ephemerides.

Tamdakht, Moroc Meteorite Hunting 27FEB09

Tamdakht, Moroc Meteorite Hunting by Philippe Thomas

A meteorite fall occurred near Ouarzazate on December 20th, 2008, specifically around the villages of Tamdakht and Tiguert, located in the mountains northwest of the city. We decided to go there to gather more information on this fall and, eventually, to find some pieces. Departure for Morocco was on Wednesday, February 11th in the afternoon. The road is long, but we arrive in the south of the country on 12 at night, exhausted. Here, a few days of rest are necessary to recover the route and also to enjoy the sun that is so much lacking to us at home. Almost 30 ° C difference ... a pure happiness! We left for Ouarzazate on Monday, February 16th early in the morning. Our Moroccan friend accompanies us, he has toured a lot in the zone of the fall and knows many nomads who live in these mountains. We arrived at the entrance of Ouarzazate in early afternoon and we stop in the first Total gas station to find someone who is waiting for us to guide us to places where stones were found. Our two guides getting into our car and we started. The track which leads in mountains start at the end of a residential area. We see that it is a very used track, it is wide, flat (a real highway) and we can ride rather fast especially in 4x4!... the rest of the story at: http://www.meteoritica.com/tamdakht%20hunting%20trip.html

Photo of Hopper the Meteorite Dog 2MAR09

Photo of Hopper the famous meteorite finding dog with Rob Wesel, West, TX. Hopper found the meteorite in the photo.
Photo courtesy of Mike Bandli; Copyright Rob Wesel, Nakhla Dog Meteorites 2009

Meteor Photographed Over North Central California 27FEB09

QT Movie http://www.geocities.com/stange34@sbcglobal.net/v20090227_003016.92.mov

A 6 second plus Fireball 30 minutes & 17 seconds past midnight PST last night (2/27/09) a georgeous Fireball blazed across the N. Central California Area lasting apprx. 6.5 Seconds.

Photo, video and report by Larry Stange
Yuba City Sentinel

website: http://www.geocities.com/stange34@sbcglobal.net/

Object that fell through roof of Dallas home was part of a tree-mulching machine, police say 27FEB09

http://www.startribune.com/nation/40426837.html
Object that fell through roof of Dallas home was part of a tree-mulching machine, police say
Associated Press
February 27, 2009
DALLAS - Police say a 6-pound chunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a Dallas home was part of a machine that was grinding up an unwanted tree nearby. Sgt. Gil Cerda says: "Mystery solved." So much for the theory it could have been a piece of debris from this month's collision of Russian and U.S. satellites.
Cerda says the metal chunk was a grinding tip of a mulching machine being used by a tree disposal service crew. No one was hurt when it went flying Tuesday. Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther said no charges will be filed against the business because it was an accident.
The satellite debris theory also came up when a fireball streaked across the Texas sky Feb. 15. That turned out to be a meteorite. It also surfaced last week when a piece of metal crashed through a New Jersey warehouse. That was another errant piece of a mulching machine.

West, TX-Meteorite hunters are scouring north McLennan County, frustrating some landowners

Meteorite hunters are scouring north McLennan County, frustrating some landowners
Thursday, February 26, 2009
By Ken Sury
Tribune-Herald staff writer
WEST — Meteorite hunters have descended in droves to the countryside surrounding this farming community, searching for the elusive pieces from a fireball that flared across the daytime sky over Central Texas and then broke apart.
But while the fireball and its accompanying sonic boom Feb. 15 were spectacular, West residents say they’ve got better things to do than hunt for the thousands of fragments that litter the land and might not even be on their property.
Spring planting is a focus for the farmers now. That meteorite hunters from across the country are asking to traipse across their fields looking for stones the size of a pecan or smaller at a crucial time for planting has more than a few farmers and ranchers perturbed. In some cases, people didn’t ask and trespassed.
... continued story, video, and photos:
http://www.wacotrib.com/

Tamdakht meteorite fall in Morocco is now officially named 27FEB09

The Tamdakht meteorite fall in Morocco is now officially named:
http://tin.er.usgs.gov/meteor/index.php?code=48691

Surfside, Massachusetts Fireball 20FEB09 posted 27FEB09

http://www.ack.net/022609fireball.html

"Fireball" sighting maybe a meteorite
By Eliot Baker
The Inquirer and Mirror (Nantucket, Massachusetts)
February 26, 2009
Island residents are being urged by Maria Mitchell Association director of astronomy, Vladimir Strelnitski, to keep their eyes open for meteorites around Surfside and the south shore in the coming days following an unconfirmed sighting of a fireball blazing across the early-morning sky Friday, Feb. 20 at 4:30 a.m.
Terry Galschneider was up early watching television when she said a dramatic orange fireball "lit up the sky" for five seconds. She said the fireball was too large and bright to have been a shooting star or a helicopter. Her full description to Strelnitski left him to "not exclude that it fell in the ocean, but maybe even on land."The object's brightness suggests it would be relatively close to Galschneider, although its lack of sound made that even less possible to tell for certain. He said it was highly unlikely to have been debris from colliding satellites.The sighting was not confirmed by either Nantucket airport officials orby the police, and no other reports of fiery objects in the sky Friday in Massachusetts have been made to NASA, or to astronomy departments at Boston University, the University Massachusetts at Lowell, or the American Meteor Society. Other islanders who may have spotted the fireball are encouraged to contact Strelnitski at the Maria Mitchell Association at +1(508) 228-5273 .
Though unlikely, Strelnitski said discovering a meteorite - or part of one - on Nantucket would be unprecedented and could yield important information to scientists. People around Surfside especially are encouraged to look for unusual small craters with valleys on the surface with strange objects inside. Meteors can be a piece of metal, a greenish or grayish piece of stone, or a black piece of organic matter that resembles coal called carbonatious condrite, the rarest of all meteorites.

Another meteor impact coincides with large-scale volcanic eruptions -Planet Earth 27FEB09

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=332

Another meteor impact coincides with large-scale volcanic eruptions
---Planet Earth online 23 February 2009
Scientists have long debated the cause of the dinosaurs' extinction about 65 million years ago. The remnants of a large volcanic eruption in the Faroe Islands. These eruptions can go on for millions of years. Around this time a giant meteorite struck the Gulf of Mexico. But the extinction also seems to coincide with massive and long-lasting volcanic eruptions in India known as the Deccan Traps. So which event was responsible? And are these phenomena linked?
New research now shows that this combination of meteorite impact andlarge-scale volcanic activity - known as flood basalt eruptions - is not unique. An international team of researchers looked at a 30-million-year-old meteorite crater in Belarus called Logoisk. They found that this too coincided with volcanic eruptions further south which covered Yemen and Ethiopia with basalt rock. These events are similar to those that occurred 65 million years ago, but on a much smaller scale. The scientists suggest such coincidences may be more common than previously thought. Dr Sarah Sherlock from the Open University and lead author of the paper, says, 'If you have a flood basalt then people wonder if there's also an impact. ''There will be, almost certainly,' she added. According to the paper, a meteorite will strike the Earth and leave a crater the size of Logoisk on average once every 1.5 million years. Flood volcanic eruptions occur over several million years, so a Logoisk-sized crater is likely to occur during each of the 16 identified periods of flood volcanism on Earth in the last 360 million years. However, researchers do not think there is a causal link between flood volcanism and meteorite impact.'There is simply no geological evidence to link the two,' says Sherlock. To determine the precise age of the Logoisk crater the researchers used argon dating. 'Argon dating is very versatile.' said Sherlock. 'It's the only technique that can be used to date both [impacts and flood volcanism].' Samples of material from the crater were gradually heated using an infrared laser, causing the release of argon gas. The ratio of two isotopes of argon released in the gas gives an accurate indication ofthe age of the sample. Using this technique, the researchers showed that the two events occurred simultaneously.
One question raised by the results was why the meteorite impact and flood volcanism 65 million years ago wiped out much of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs, but the similar events 30 million years ago did not. According to Sherlock, it was down to the size of the events.'These coincidences in Earth's history are not as rare as people think,but in order to actually do significant damage to the environment they have to be really, really big.' Sherlock added. Together, the 65-million-year-old Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico and volcanic eruptions that produced the Deccan Traps eruption 65 million years ago released 8000 gigatonnes (Gt) of sulfur dioxide, causing global environmental damage. By comparison the Logoisk and Afro-Arabian events released only 30Gt - insufficient to cause change on a global scale.

The research is published in the Journal of the Geological Society, London.

Comet Lulin visits inner Solar System 26FEB09

http://astronomynow.com/090223CometLulinvisitsinnerSolarSystem.html

Comet Lulin visits inner Solar System
BY DR EMILY BALDWIN
ASTRONOMY NOW
23 February, 2009

On 24 February Comet Lulin will make its first visit to the inner Solar System, streaking past the Earth at a distance of 38 million miles, or 160 times further than the Moon. Comet Lulin, formally known as C/2007 N3, was discovered last year byastronomers at Taiwan's Lulin Observatory. Nicknamed the "green comet", Lulin's atmosphere contains poisonous cyanogen and diatomic carbongases. Researchers at the University of Leicester will be using NASA's Swift satellite to monitor the comet in X-ray, ultraviolet and optical light as it closes in on the Earth this week.
"The wonderful ease of scheduling of Swift and its joint UV and X-raycapability make Swift the observatory of choice for observations like these," says Dr Julian Osborne, leader of the Swift project at Leicester. The University of Leicester played a major role in developing Swift's X-Ray Telescope.

[Image]

This image of Comet Lulin taken 28 Jan merges data acquired by Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (blue and green) and X-Ray Telescope (red). At the time of the observation, the comet was 99.5 million milesfrom Earth and 115.3 million miles from the Sun. Image: Univ. of Leicester/NASA/Swift/Carter et al. Comets are thought to represent some of the most pristine ingredients ofthe Solar System. They are made up of dust, gas and ice, and as they approach the Sun, the frozen components sublime and stream out in tails. Swift observations of the comet on 28 January revealed that it is certainly active. "The UVOT data show that Lulin was shedding nearly 800 gallons of water each second," says team member Dennis Bodewits, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,which is enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than 15 minutes. Although Swift can't see water directly, ultraviolet light from the Sunquickly breaks apart water molecules into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl (OH) molecules, the latter of which Swift's Ultraviolet/OpticalTelescopes (UVOT) can detect. "This gives us a unique view into the types and quantities of gas a comet produces," Bodewits explains. The images taken so far reveal a hydroxyl cloud spanning a distance greater than the distance between Earth and the Moon, and a tail streaming off at an angle. Solar radiation pushes the icy grains awayfrom the comet, and as they gradually evaporate, they create a thin tail of hydroxyl molecules. Farther from the comet, even the hydroxyl molecule succumbs to solar ultraviolet radiation, breaking into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen atoms."The solar wind - a fast-moving stream of particles from the Sun -interacts with the comet's broader cloud of atoms," says Stefan Immler, also at Goddard. "This causes the solar wind to light up with X-rays,and that's what Swift's XRT sees." This interaction, called charge exchange, results in X-rays from most comets when they pass within about three times Earth's distance from the Sun. Because Lulin is so active and is losing a lot of gas, its X-ray emitting region extends in a largecloud far sunward of the comet. The team hope that the forthcoming observations of Lulin will reveal more on the comet's chemistry andenable scientists to build up a three-dimensional picture of the cometduring its maiden voyage through the Solar System.Comet Lulin will be visible to the naked eye, and for most locations inthe Northern Hemisphere will be easiest to spot after midnight when itis high in the sky. In small telescopes it will appear as a dim fuzzy"star" - brighter in the centre and more diffuse around the edges. It will fade from view by mid-March.

Norton County, KS fall 18FEB1948 more than 60 years ago 26FEB09

La Paz (right) directing recovery of the massive Norton County, Kansas meteorite, 1948.

University of New Mexico collection

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas, USA - Witnessed Fall - 18FEB1948 --61 years ago

--------------------------

After a brilliant fireball and a tremendous noise, a huge shower of stones fell over a large area of Norton County, Kansas, and Furnas County, Nebraska. This meteorite, which fell on 18 February 1948, 16:56hrs, was named Norton County, and classified as an Achondrite, Ca-poor, Aubrite, fragmental breccia. Aubrites are quite rare and this is the largest known in historical times. The main mass weighing more than 1070 kg is the center of the meteorite display at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Norton County is a very historical and scientifically valuable meteorite and almost impossible to obtain as nearly all of the material is in the University of New Mexico collection.

833207-NortonCounty,Kansasmeteorite,1948.kmz download

references: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=291649&page=14

www.schoolersinc.com/meteorites_p_11.htm

www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/lapaz.html

Catalogue of Meteorites by Grady, M. , 2000

'Dinosaur-killing' impact did not start global wildfires 25FEB09

Published online 23 February 2009 Nature doi:10.1038/news.2009.112 Corrected online:
24 February 2009
NATURE NEWS

'Dinosaur-killing' impact did not start global wildfires
by Philip Ball
Burnt oil and gas, not vegetation, may have caused the soot layer at the end of the Cretaceous period.
The impact of a huge asteroid or comet at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago is generally held responsible for the sudden demise of 60–80% of all species on Earth. But new results challenge the common idea that the extinctions were partly caused by global wildfires triggered by the violent impact.
... full story:
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090223/full/news.2009.112.html

West, TX meteorite classified by Dr. Alan Rubin 22FEB09

Dr. Alan Rubin, UCLA, has analyzed the West, TX meteorite as an L6 chondrite:

W0, S3, L6 olivine
Fa: 24.2±0.2 (n=12)low-Ca pyx Fs20.5±0.7 Wo1.6±0.2 (n=12)
kamacite has an average composition of Fe 93.1 Ni 5.8 Co 0.83 (n=4) taenite has an average composition of Fe 69.6 Ni 30.3 Co 0.30 (n=9) Taenite is much more abundant than kamacite. Many plagioclase grains exceed 50 µm in size. Some metal grains have irregular grains of troilite inside them. Metallic Cu is present in metal grains. There are some thin metal- and sulfide-bearing shock veins. The rock exhibits signficant silicate darkening.

The "Ash Creek" (Doug Dawn`s proposed name for the meteorite) meteorite sample was collected by Doug Dawn, Dima, Rob McCafferty, and Sergey and sent to Dr. Rubin for analysis.

The data from Dr. Rubin`s classification analysis will be sent to the Meteorite NOMCOM for approval and a final naming will be approved.

Record timing for meteorite recovery and analysis; congratulations to all that worked on this!!!

Amateur astronomer finds meteorites near Waco 22FEB09

Update on West, Tx meteorite:

Amateur astronomer finds meteorites near Waco
Updated: 2/22/2009 7:08 PM
By: Veronica Castelo
NEWS 8 Austin

..."Now there's actual physical proof that it was a meteor. Amateur astronomer Doug Dawn and his team say they were able to find meteorites. Dawn's team analyzed the video footage shot by News 8 photographer Eddie Garcia. Dawn said there was a lot of information available in the film and it helped with calculations of where the material was coming from. "...

For the whole story and TV video:
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=232800&SecID=2

Hopper the Dog Finds Meteorite- West, TX 21FEB09

There is indeed a meteorite finding dog! - Hopper the Dog*
Here's the story.
On Friday Sonny, Steve Arnold and I (Ruben Garcia) drove into the strewnfield bright and early and immediately started knocking on doors to try to gain permission to hunt. Upon walking up to a particular house Sonny spotted a meteorite on the porch (about 70-90 grams) he picked it up, and laid it backdown. "Ruben, did you see that fully crusted meteorite on the porch?" He Said. I couldn't believe it. He was right! Right there on the porch but no one was home...what to do? Since Sonny assured me that he wasn't going to buy meteorites when he could find them I decided to track down the owner and try to buy the specimen. I got the owners work phone number from a neighbor and called. After introducing myself and explaining what I was in town for, I told the owner that there was a meteorite on their porch. "What, you mean that black rock that the dog, Hopper, brought up and dropped on the porch?" "Yes, that one" I said. Needless to say, I drove down and did a nice video interview with the owner holding the space rock and recalling the tale.
Written by: Ruben Garcia

First Tracked Rock Recovered in Sudan (Asteroid 2008 TC3) 21FEB09

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16635-first-tracked-space-rock-recovered-after-impact
First tracked space rock recovered after impact-0246 GMT on 7 October-Sudan (Asteroid 2008 TC3)
by David Shiga
New Scientist
February 19, 2009
The discovery of meteorites from an asteroid that exploded over Sudan in October completes an astronomical trifecta. For the first time, scientists have detected a space rock ahead of a collision with Earth, watched it streak through the atmosphere, and then recovered pieces of it. Analysis of the meteorites could shed light on conditions in the early solar system more than 4 billion years ago. When the asteroid, called 2008 TC3, was discovered on 6 October last year, it was just 20 hours away from hitting Earth. Though the warning period was short, it was the first time a space rock had been found before it impacted the planet. Orbital calculations predicted the object would plunge into the atmosphere above Sudan at 0246 GMT on 7 October, and it arrived right ontime. Observations suggested it was no more than 5 metres across, too small to survive intact all the way to the ground and cause damage. The brilliant fireball it made as it descended through the atmosphere was seen far in the distance by the crew of a KLM airliner, and was observed by various satellites, including a weather satellite called Meteosat-8. Now, a team of meteorite hunters has found fragments of the object. The meteorites are a unique group in that they come from an object seen hurtling through space before its plunge into Earth's atmosphere.

Numerous fragments
Students from the University of Khartoum, led by Dr Muawia Shaddad, found the first fragments using data provided by NASA to home in onwhere fragments were likely to be found. Scientists involved with the discovery, including Peter Jenniskens ofthe SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, have reportedly submitted a study about the find to a scientific journal, and have not responded to interview requests. But Lindley Johnson, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program office atthe agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, reported the find on Mondayin Vienna, at a United Nations meeting discussing near-Earth object (NEO) impacts. <http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/COPUOS/stsc/2009/index.html>

An image of the first fragment found is included in the slides from Johnson's presentation (pdf) <http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/stsc2009/tech-25.pdf> (see slide 19).
Donald Yeomans, who manages NASA's efforts to find and track NEOs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, confirmed that"quite a few" fragments have been found but declined to discuss them further.

Weak material?
Before the fragments were found, meteorite expert Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario in Canada said the asteroid was likely made of relatively weak material, given that 2008 TC3 broke up unusually quickly once it hit the atmosphere, exploding about 37 kilometres above ground. Another object known to have broken up at about this height scattered fragments over Tagish Lake in Canada in 2000. The Tagish Lake meteorites turned out to be made of a very crumbly material, and fall into a class of meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, which have been modified little by heat or other processes since the solar system formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. "I would caution making direct compositional comparisons [with the Tagish Lake meteorites], but it does certainly underscore the global weakness of [2008 TC3]," Brown said in comments posted on the JPL website in November. He added that observations of the rock's quick breakup "all but rule out" a composition rich in iron. <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/2008tc3.html>

Point of origin
When the analysis of these rock fragments does come out, what is it likely to tell us? Meteorites in general provide a valuable record of conditions in the early solar system, such as temperature and chemical composition. And the 2008 TC3 meteorites could be especially illuminating because the parent object was observed in space before the breakup, allowing scientists to calculate its former orbit around the Sun. This provides precious information connecting the meteorites to their place of origin in the solar system. For most other meteorites, such calculations involve a lot of guesswork. Meteorites had previously been recovered after about 10 "fireball" events, where parent space rocks were observed streaking through the sky. But in those cases, scientists had to try to reconstruct the object's orbit based on its path through the atmosphere. "It's often very difficult to get from a streak in the sky to what theorbit was," says Allan Treiman of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Tucson, Arizona. "But if they've got its location before it hit the atmosphere, they're far better off - that's really wonderful."