[meteorite-list] Meteoric Expectations Hit Rock Bottom In Maryland

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:24 2004
Message-ID: <200203011630.IAA28699_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.rock01mar01.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dheadlines

Meteoric expectations hit rock bottom in Pasadena

Smithsonian proves stone is of this world

By Frank D. Roylance
Baltimore Sun
March 1, 2002

Dale Pearce's dreams of cashing in the "Glen Burnie Meteorite" for a down
payment on a house for his family crashed and burned yesterday in
Washington.

The odd stone that the Pasadena house painter and a NASA scientist thought
was the meteor that shot across the sky Saturday night is just a common
rock.

"It's an iron oxide, cemented sandstone," said Tim McCoy, curator of
meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in
Washington. He examined the stone yesterday.

"These rocks are very common in the Eastern United States, and they are
commonly confused with meteorites," McCoy said. "We put it under the
microscope, but there was never really any question in our mind once we got
it out of the bag."

Pearce, who found the stone Sunday, will continue to rent.

"I did get to learn a lot," he said. "I guess I'll look at it as a good
experience. I saw a falling star; I'm not sure where it landed, though."

The commercial value of an authentic meteorite can vary widely depending on
size and type, but can be worth thousands of dollars.

But his sons may yet own a real meteorite. A collector called from Virginia
and said he would send them one found in Africa.

Pearce's big adventure in science began about 9 p.m. Saturday when he saw a
colorful meteor streak across the sky behind his home. Callers to The Sun
from Lutherville and Hanover, Pa., said they saw it, too.

On Sunday, Pearce said, he and his two young sons searched woods near their
home and found a plum-sized stone in a hole, surrounded by fresh dirt.
Pearce picked it up and showed it to a friend. The friend called Michael J.
Mumma, an acquaintance who is also chief scientist for planetary research at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

It looked like a meteorite to Mumma, too. So he arranged to have the stone
examined at the Smithsonian, and escorted Pearce and the rock to Washington.

Mumma, who said his expertise runs more to comets than asteroids,
acknowledged his surprise at the results yesterday. "It fooled us all there
for a while. ... I thought it was a meteorite," he said. "I looked very
carefully at the impact site and for signs that it might not be natural, and
didn't find any. ... I'm puzzled, frankly."

McCoy wasn't. The overall shape of the rock and its weathering could easily
be confused with the real thing, he said. "Among all the ones I've looked at
that turned out not to be meteorites, this was one of the more convincing,"
he said.

But closer examination revealed the stone was 80 to 90 percent quartz, which
is almost never found in meteorites, he said. And, it was rich in iron
oxides - also absent in freshly fallen meteorites.

McCoy said the stone's surface, despite appearances, "had not been melted.
The outside was just a weathered version of the inside."

But Pearce and Mumma did the right thing, McCoy said. "It's better to bring
it in and have it looked at than to wonder forever," he said.

For their trouble, Pearce and his family got to examine meteorites at the
Smithsonian. His son Collin, 6, held a meteorite from Mars - one of 15 known
to science.

Mumma has no regrets. "That's the way science goes," he said. "I was glad to
have had the opportunity to do this, and I would do it again. Had it been
something important, this is how we would have obtained a sample for
scientific use."
Received on Fri 01 Mar 2002 11:30:29 AM PST