2005 Meteor/Meteorite News-UPI/AP newswires

2005 Meteor/Meteorite News-
Sources: UPI/AP newswires

DEC 2005-JAN 2005

Studies challenge notion that Mars once was warm and wet
Author: ALICIA CHANG AP Science Writer
Date: December 21, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two new studies are challenging the notion that the desolate Martian plains once brimmed with salty pools of water that could have supported some form of life.
Instead, the studies argue, the layered rock outcrops probed by NASA's robot rover Opportunity and interpreted as signs of ancient water could have been left by explosive volcanic ash or a meteorite impact eons ago. That would suggest a far more violent and dry history than proposed by the scientists operating...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Only two larger ones of...
challenge notion that Mars once was warm and wet
Author: ALICIA CHANG AP Science Writer
Date: December 21, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two new studies are challenging the notion that the desolate Martian plains once brimmed with salty pools of water that could have supported some form of life.
Instead, the studies argue, the layered rock outcrops probed by NASA's robot rover Opportunity and interpreted as signs of ancient water could have been left by explosive volcanic ash or a meteorite impact eons ago. That would suggest a far more violent and dry history than proposed by the scientists operating...
Geologists: No Mars water, just meteorites
TEMPE, Ariz., Dec. 21 (UPI) --

DEC

Huge meteorite discovered underground in area of Kansas rich in space rock
Date: November 11, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A rare 1,400-pound meteorite was discovered seven feet underground by a collector in an area long known for producing prized space rocks. Using a metal detector mounted on a three-wheel vehicle, Steve Arnold of Kingston, Ark., found the huge meteorite two weeks ago in Kiowa County's Brenham Township in southern Kansas. The meteorite is classified as an oriented pallasite, a type noted for a conical shape with crystals embedded in iron-nickel alloy. Only two larger ones of... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

NOV

Meteorites may have caused ancient lava
PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 28 (UPI) --

OCT

Meteorite unlocks solar system secrets
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Sept. 27 (UPI) --

SEP

AUG
Red planet may not have been hot
PASADENA, Calif., July 22 (UPI) --

UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
Drilling set at Chesapeake Bay meteor site ... British butterfly popuation is decreasing ... U.S. healthcare costs are double Canada's ... Prostate treatment with low side effects ... News from United Press International.

Drilling set at Chesapeake Bay meteor site
BALTIMORE, July 18 (UPI) --

Norwegian fjords, world's largest meteorite crater among new U.N. protected sites Author: ALEXANDRA ZAVIS Associated Press Writer Date: July 14, 2005 Publication: Associated Press ArchiveNorwegian fjords and the world's oldest and largest meteorite crater in South Africa were among seven natural wonders added Thursday to the United Nation's list of protected World Heritage Sites. The additions were made at the 29th session of the U.N. Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee, taking place this week in the South African coastal city of Durban. The vast crater southwest of Johannesburg was formed... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

JULY

JUNE

The Almanac

Meteorite momument in Scotland
GLASGOW, Scotland, May 21 (UPI) --

MAY
Scientists size up 'backyard' meteorite
CHICAGO, April 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are studying a meteorite that literally landed in their back yard.

APR

In the Stars: A second chance for exolife?
WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- A weekly series by UPI examining new discoveries about the cosmos. This week: Dying stars go through a stage where they expand to many times their original size, and new research suggests this stage might be long enough in some cases for life to take hold

Residents report streak of light over southern Oregon, Washington state
Author: WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer Date: March 13, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Dozens of residents in the Pacific Northwest reported seeing a bright streak of light as it flashed across the sky, startling witnesses from southern Oregon to the Seattle area, according to officials. Scientists said the flaming object was probably a meteor, and that it likely disintegrated before any fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean. "It was like a big ball of fire," said Summer Jensen, who was in her living room Saturday night when she saw the flash of... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Meteorite dust sheds clues to solar system ST. LOUIS, March 4 (UPI) --

MAR

Living bacteria found in ocean sediments
CARDIFF, Wales, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Welsh scientists said they have found living bacteria inside sediments about 16 million years old and located about a half-mile below the ocean's surface.

Lady Luck watches over Mars rovers
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The spectacular success of NASA's twin Mars rovers is due obviously to the skills and determination of the scientists and engineers involved in the mission, but luck also contributed to an amazing degree.

FEB

Suspected Meteorite Hits Cambodia
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — An unidentified object that crashed to Earth in northwestern Cambodia (search) has some villagers believing it may have divine power, police said Wednesday.
The hard, black rocklike object, weighing about 9.9 pounds, fell from the sky into a field about 19 miles north of Sisophon early Monday morning, said Sok Sareth, the Banteay Meanchey province police chief.
Hundreds of villagers rushed to the site to pray, believing it had divine power.
Local police initially thought a land mine had exploded in the area — a former war zone. The object made a hole 15.75 inches deep and burnt nearby grass and leaves.
Sok Sareth said he transferred the object to his office for further investigation by geologists and land mine clearing experts, ignoring requests from villagers to return it.
"Some people said others who have been possessed by spirits told them that unless the object is returned to where it landed, people in the community will experience hunger or disease," he said.
"But I don't believe that. Some people just made it up to try to profit from it."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145536,00.html

Meteorite lands in Cambodian rice paddy
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Jan. 26 (UPI) --


NASA rover finds meteorite on surface of Mars, offering clues to how planet's surface changes
Author: JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press Writer
Date: January 19, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
NASA's Opportunity rover has determined that a strange bubbly rock on the surface of Mars is actually a meteorite, offering a new clue into how the martian surface is made and remade.
Scientists are not so much interested in the meteorite itself. Rather, they want to see if other objects nearby also are meteorites and how martian winds are reshaping the planet. If sand is continually blowing in and being deposited on the surface, burying things and building up terrain over...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


NASA rover finds meteorite on surface of Mars
Author: JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press Writer
Date: January 19, 2005 Publication: Associated Press Archive
In a stroke of luck, the NASA rover Opportunity has discovered a basketball-size metal meteorite sitting on the surface of Mars, the mission's main scientist said Tuesday.
Scientists believe the meteorite might lead to clues about how martian winds are reshaping the planet's surface. Opportunity came upon the meteorite last week while performing other tasks. Tests confirmed it was a nickel-iron meteorite, said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University scientist who is...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

JAN 2005

Flaming Pigeons Source of Egyptian Fireball Reports (?)15JUL04

Flaming Pigeons Source of Egyptian Fireball Reports (?)

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 20 17:32:23 EDT 2004

In "Fireball (sic) story from Egypt July 15" it was
written:


>> Dear All,

>> Does anybody hear about an event in the south

>> of Egypt where about 100 houses were burnt

>> due to fireballs falling on roofs and inflaming

>>the >> houses? >> Here is news report in Russian:

>> http://www.newsru.com/world/15jul2004/shar.html

>> Of course, maybe it is distortion by mass-media,

>>but anyway...

>> Best wishes,

>> Andrei Ol'khovatov


I found this version of the Egyptian Fireball Story

"Blazes in Egypt start "balls of fire" rumors
Reuters, Sun Jul 18,12:31 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5706645
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20040718/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_fire

"CAIRO (Reuters) - A series of fires in the southern
Egyptian province of Sohag has destroyed some 160
houses, giving rise to rumors that spirits are at
work or mysterious balls of fire are falling from
the sky, a local official SAYS.

But the causes are mundane -- kerosene stoves,
cigarette butts and electrical short circuits,
Brigadier Ezzat Aboul Kassem told Reuters on
Sunday. Flaming pigeons, their feathers set
alight in the blazes, may explain talk of
balls of fire, he added."

""Investigations have shown that there are burned
pigeons on top of some of the burned houses and
it's probable that they fell there after catching
fire at other houses," he said. "Maybe that
explains the rumors of balls of fire falling
from the sky.""

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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 ...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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,"...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

2003 Meteorite News AP-newswire

2003 Meteorite News
AP-newswire

Mars rovers seek to resolve competing clues about planet's past
Author: ANDREW BRIDGES AP Science Writer
Date: December 20, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The prospect of life on Mars has charged the public imagination for more than a century, ever since astronomers first spied what they thought were canals dug to irrigate the planet's ruddy surface.
But after spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes began taking a closer look at the planet, evidence of the canals -- and the Martians who presumably created them -- quickly vanished. Instead, the scrutiny showed Mars to be a dusty, frigid world, shrouded by an atmosphere too thin...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Researchers find evidence meteorite caused extinction 250 million years ago
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: November 20, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A massive asteroid may have collided with the Earth 251 million years ago and killed 90 percent of all life, an extinction even more severe than the meteorite impact that snuffed out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
A new study, based on meteorite fragments found in Antarctica, suggests the Permian-Triassic event, the greatest extinction in the planet's history, may have been triggered by a mountain-sized space rock that smashed into a southern land mass. "It...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Renovated Hall of Meteorites opening at American Museum of Natural History
Author: DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press Writer
Date: September 16, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Have you ever wanted to touch a piece of the universe?
Well, you can. The newly renovated Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites is reopening Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History, allowing visitors to again come in contact with objects as old as the sun.
"We display some of the first rocks formed in the solar system," said Denton Ebel, curator of the hall.
The exhibition centers on Ahnighito, a 34-ton fragment of the 4.5 billion-year-old...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Renovated Hall of Meteorites opening at American Museum of Natural History
Author: DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press Writer
Date: September 15, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Have you ever wanted to touch a piece of the universe?
Well, you can. The newly renovated Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites is reopening Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History, allowing visitors to again come in contact with objects as old as the sun.
"We display some of the first rocks formed in the solar system," said Denton Ebel, curator of the hall.
The exhibition centers on Ahnighito, a 34-ton fragment of the 4.5 billion-year-old...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Utah man sentenced to nearly six years for advertising stolen moon rocks Date: August 27, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A man convicted of trying to sell moon rocks stolen from NASA was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.
Gordon Sean McWhorter, 27, of Salt Lake City, was convicted in June and received a five-year, 10-month sentence Tuesday. He could have been sentenced to 25 years for stealing property of value to the United States and interstate transportation of stolen property. McWhorter, who has maintained his innocence, did not appear for his April trial in Orlando and was arrested three days...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Russian scientists locate site of meteorite crash
Date: June 20, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Russian scientists say they have found the spot in Siberia where a giant meteorite came crashing to Earth last year.
The researchers from the Kosmopoisk, or Space Search, research group told Rossiya state television Thursday that they believe a burned-out tract of taiga about 700 miles north of the city of Irkutsk is the spot where one or more meteorites fell on Sept. 25. Vadim Chernobrov, Kosmopoisk's coordinator, said the meteorite crash was "comparable to the...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Researchers say Earth may have formed earlier in history of solar system
Date: June 5, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The Earth became a major planetary body much earlier than previously believed, just 10 million years after the birth of the sun, researchers say.
Experts now believe that the inner solar system planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars -- actually began forming within 10,000 years after the nuclear fires of the sun were ignited about 4.5 billion years ago, says Stein B. Jacobsen, author of an analysis appearing Friday in the journal Science. Early in its life, the sun was surrounded by...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Man convicted in theft of moon rocks from NASA
Date: June 5, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A man was convicted Wednesday of attempting to sell a collection of moon rocks and meteorites stolen by three NASA interns last year.
Gordon McWhorter, 27, was convicted in federal court of stealing property of value to the United States and interstate transportation of stolen property. He faces up to 25 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 27. His attorney said he plans to appeal.
McWhorter was the only defendant tried for the July 15 thefts from...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Meteor lights up Midwestern sky, showering homes with rocks
Author: RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press Writer Date: March 28, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The midnight sky flashed an eerie blue early over four Midwestern states as a meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, sending rocks as big as softballs crashing through some houses.
Residents in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin reported seeing the disintegrating meteorite flash across the sky about midnight Thursday. Police were soon deluged with reports of falling rocks striking homes and cars. Chris Zeilenga, 42, of Beecher, Ill., said he and his wife, Pauline, were watching TV war...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Meteor lights up Midwestern sky, showering homes with rocks
Author: RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press Writer
Date: March 27, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The midnight sky flashed an eerie blue early Thursday over four Midwestern states as a meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, sending rocks as big as softballs crashing through some houses.
Residents in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin reported seeing the disintegrating meteorite flash across the sky about midnight. Police were soon deluged with reports of falling rocks striking homes and cars. Chris Zeilenga, 42, of Beecher, Ill., said he and his wife, Pauline, were watching TV war...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Odds and Ends
Author: The Associated Press
Date: March 3, 2003 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Farmer Gary Wennihan may have made a meteoric rise to wealth.
Wennihan, 60, was tossing aside rocks in his soybean field to prevent damage to his combine when he picked up a strange-looking rock in the fall of 2000. It turned out to be a rare meteorite scientists say could be worth as much as $1 million.
Ben Rogers, a Northwest Missouri State University student who attends Wennihan's church, offered to take it to his geology professor.
After polishing away...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Orissa, Kendrapara District, India Meteorite wrecks houses in India 28SEP03

Meteorite wrecks houses in India
BBC NEWS
Sunday, 28 September, 2003, 17:39 GMT 18:39 UK
At least 20 people are reported to have been injured after a meteorite crashed to Earth in eastern India.
Reports say hundreds of people in the state of Orissa panicked when the fireball streamed across the sky.
Burning fragments were said to have fallen over a wide area, destroying several houses.
An official in Orissa said the authorities were assessing the damage and trying to recover what was left of the meteor.
Reports from Kendrapara district in Orissa, where the meteor came to Earth, said windows rattled as it passed overhead.
"It was all there for just a few seconds but it was like daylight everywhere," one resident said.
Rarity
Experts estimate about 100 tons of extraterrestrial dust grains fall to earth each day.
Occasionally, a dark pebble or fist-size object will rain down, with boulder-sized objects or bigger being a historical rarity.
The only recorded fatality from a meteor was an Egyptian dog that had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1911.
Seven decades later, scientists recognised the dog had been struck by a meteorite from Mars.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3146692.stm

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)


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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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

1. Arctic Asteroid!

   science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01jun_1m.htm - Cached - Similar

2. A huge meteor dazzles the Yukon

   science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast25jan_1.htm - Cached - Similar

3. Yukon Meteorite may provide a 'new window into the universe'

   explorenorth.com/library/pressrelease/bl-nasa0500.htm - Cached - Similar

4. Fireball Meteor over southern Yukon, January 18, 2000

   www.ufobc.ca/yukon/ykfireballjan2000.html - Cached - Similar

5. SPACE.com -- Yukon Meteor Flash Caught on Film

   www.space.com/news/yukon_flash_000128.html - Cached - Similar

6. What'sNEW in Cosmic Ancestry, Archive 12. by Brig Klyce

   www.panspermia.org/whatsne12.htm - Cached - Similar

7. Yukon meteorite

   www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/yukon.html - Cached

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)

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...
Click here for complete article ($1.50)