[meteorite-list] NASA Uses CT Scan To Probe Meteorite

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:07:01 2004
Message-ID: <20021017173652.58968.qmail_at_web80309.mail.yahoo.com>

"The crystals formed after the hot meteor landed and
later cooled."

Hey Ron?

Have any idea where Kelly Young (the author of this
article) got that tidbit of MISINFORMATION?

Also, take another look at the meteorite in the image.
 Looks more like a basalt than an iron.
Any chance that they used the wrong image?
<http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/images/2002b/101702meteorite.jpg>

Curious,
Bob V.

------------------ Original Message
-------------------
[meteorite-list] NASA Uses CT Scan To Probe Meteorite

Ron Baalke baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov
Thu, 17 Oct 2002 09:19:53 -0700 (PDT)
<http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2002b/101702meteorite.htm>

NASA uses CT scan to probe meteorite
By Kelly Young
FLORIDA TODAY
October 17, 2002

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Engineers at Kennedy Space Center
have peered into the heart of a 100-pound meteorite
without cutting it open, using the same technology as
a medical CT scan.

But the space center's Computed Tomography Scanner is
hundreds of times more sensitive than medical scans.

Behind a 7,000-pound, steel-encased lead door inside
the Nondestructive Testing Laboratory, engineers use a
tiny piece of radioactive cobalt-60 to shoot gamma
rays or X-rays through a meteorite chunk, which stands
like a two-foot-tall pillar and slides along a track
in between the radiation
source and the sensors.

Meteorites are chunks of rocks that survived a fiery
entry through Earth's atmosphere and landed on the
planet.

The Smithsonian Institution loaned Marshall Space
Flight Center the meteorite piece, which is actually
part of a 6-ton meteorite that was discovered in
Mundrabilla, Australia.

NASA probably will return the meteorite, which could
be worth up to $1 million, within the next week.

"The Smithsonian's anxious to get it back," said Pete
Engel, an engineering specialist with Wyle
Laboratories, which operates the computer tomography
machine for NASA.

It took one week to get 500 scans of one millimeter
each that covered most of the meteorite. Think of them
as floor plans of a 500-story skyscraper.
Inside, scientists are examining crystals of
iron-sulfide and iron-nickel.
There are also a few pockets of gas inside the
meteorite.
The crystals formed after the hot meteor landed and
later cooled.

It may take six months to a year for scientists to
analyze the results.

NASA regularly grows crystals on the International
Space Station because they form more purely in
microgravity than they do on Earth. They want to
study this meteorite because the crystals formed
naturally during a long exposure to space.

Crystals also have industrial purposes. Crystals of
mercury, cadmium and tellurium are used inside
infrared cameras, Engel said.

The $1 million scanning machine has been at the space
center since 1985.

In its time there, it has been a safety measure for
the shuttle program. It scanned dents on an Orbital
Maneuvering System engine that helps the shuttle
shift from one orbit to another. They have scanned
wear and tear on the shuttle's landing gear and on the
insulating tiles on the orbiter's outside.
It can spot things on the inside that otherwise would
not be possible without taking the entire device
apart.



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Received on Thu 17 Oct 2002 01:36:52 PM PDT