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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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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Nova Scotia Fireball 18NOV2010

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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


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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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