[meteorite-list] To Antarctica And Beyond

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:01 2004
Message-ID: <200202061644.IAA11580_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0202060383feb06.story?coll=chi%2Dnewslocal%2Dhed

To Antarctica and beyond

Geologist finds clues from space

By Lynette Kalsnes
Chicago Tribune
February 6, 2002

Planetary geologist Paul Sipiera squinted into his microscope at a rock that
looked like a charcoal briquette and gasped with pleasure.

"Bingo," he said. Then he broke into song.

After 26 days traveling to Antarctica recently, the Harper College professor
was hopeful that his expedition team had discovered at least two rare
meteorites among its cache of 33.

His first inspection last week at the Palatine college found that the black
lump was probably a stony meteorite from an asteroid discovered 200 years
ago and the other was a rare meteorite representing less than 1 percent of
the 25,000 found. More sophisticated testing must be done to confirm their
rarity.

"That's what I was hoping we would find in the field," said Sipiera, 53, of
Algonquin. "In this case it was a winner."

The journey to Antarctica was the geology and astronomy professor's fourth
expedition and his sixth trip there.

He and nine scientists, explorers, guides and a photographer traveled to the
Pecora Escarpment, 330 miles from the nearest human at the South Pole, to
collect meteorites and hardy microorganisms that can survive Antarctica's
extremes.

The group included adventurers David Butts of Algonquin, Elvira Butz of
Winnetka and James Pritzker of Chicago, who heads a private investment
company and is a member of the billionaire Pritzker family.

Meteorites are ancient chunks of the moon, planets and asteroids that have
fallen to Earth. They can provide clues about the birth of the solar system
and the origin of life, Sipiera said.

Sipiera will study his finds at Harper and the University of Illinois at
Chicago and will forward the rarest to Alabama's NASA Marshall Space Flight
Center, which has more sophisticated equipment. The meteorites will be
sliced as thin as an onion skin, analyzed for mineral makeup and added to
the books.

Sipiera, president and co-founder of the non-profit science education
organization Planetary Studies Foundation, was instrumental in building
Harper's observatory. He secured the James M. DuPont meteorite collection,
one of the world's largest, for the foundation.

A Northeastern Illinois University colleague compares Sipiera's treks to a
botanist searching for rare plants in a rain forest.

"The only way we can get evidence like this is have these very, very brave
souls go out into conditions like this," said Paul Poskozim, chairman of the
university's chemistry, earth science and physics department.

Antarctica is the most ideal place on Earth to find meteorites because it is
pristine, Sipiera said.

Meteorites fall from space into the deep freeze of Antarctica, where they
remain relatively uncontaminated and well-preserved, said astrophysics
professor Bruce Dod of Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

They lie on the snow, dark spots easily visible in the white landscape of
ice and rock. Finding meteorites is like an Easter egg hunt in subzero
temperatures.

"Paul has contributed tremendously by knowing where ideal places are to go
and look for meteorites," said NASA astrobiologist Richard Hoover, who has
journeyed to Antarctica and studied meteorites with him. "He can almost
smell them in the air."

Hoover said Sipiera has tremendous knowledge, has made significant finds and
carefully handles and precisely catalogs the specimens. Sipiera's foundation
follows scientific and treaty guidelines.

Sipiera took local schools on a virtual trek via e-mail and experiments. He
has written 28 children's books on scientific subjects.

Classes at Hanover Highlands Elementary School in Hanover Park and Elgin's
Hillcrest Elementary School charted Sipiera's latest expedition, read
journal entries and asked questions via the Internet.

The pupils packed snow into cups and predicted melting times, said Hanover
Highlands teacher Mary Ann Bilski. They compared the freezing rates of water
in a refrigerator's freezer and a chest freezer in the teachers' lounge.

"Antarctica is kind of a lost continent in most elementary schools, and now
we've learned so much about it," Bilski said.

Sipiera attributes his own interest in the physical world to his mother, who
would stare at the moon as a girl and marvel about what it was made of.

Sipiera got hooked on meteorites after reading children's astronomy books.
He took the "Stars" Golden Guide with him to the railroad tracks and found a
rock he was sure was a meteorite.

He kept the rock until he analyzed it as a graduate student and learned it
was just crud from the railroad. He discarded his childhood treasure but
kept his fascination.

"I really want to go into space, and I'll never have the chance," Sipiera
said. "This is the next best thing. I can work with bits and pieces from
space."
Received on Wed 06 Feb 2002 11:44:55 AM PST