[meteorite-list] Expert Claims Bavarian Meteorite Announcment Was Wrong

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:26 2004
Message-ID: <200204121908.MAA16230_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_565692.html

Expert claims Bavarian meteorite announcement was wrong
Ananova
April 12, 2002

A German scientist claims a supposed meteorite found after strange
lights were seen over Germany is just an ordinary rock.

The tennis ball-sized object was thought to be evidence of a meteor
strike in Bavaria.

But Dieter Heinlein says it was just slag material which is common in the
region.

However, he is sure meteorites did fall in the region that night and is
now searching for the evidence.

A farmer's wife said she found the rock in a 3ft wide crater in her
vegetable patch.

Officials from Munich's Institute for Geology told the media it was a
meteorite.

Dieter told Ananova: "I have seen about two dozen specimens which
have been brought by people who thought they had found meteorites
but no real meteorites have been found yet. It is not easy to search for
meteorites but we are hopeful."

He has spent 25 years studying and collecting space rocks and has
worked for Germany's space and aeronautics agency - the DLR.

Dieter is now locating the area in the Alpine foothills most likely to have
been hit by the meteorites. He said: "They are interesting because they
are extraterrestrial matter which can tell us more about the origins of our
solar system."

Dieter hopes to measure the radioactivity in the rocks, he said: "The
sooner we find them the better chance we have of measuring the
short-lived isotopes present in them."
Received on Fri 12 Apr 2002 03:08:00 PM PDT