[meteorite-list] RE: Meteorite Found In Israel

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:36 2004
Message-ID: <20030825204239.71802.qmail_at_web80504.mail.yahoo.com>

NASA should ante-up before it receives any credit for
the classification of this meteorite.

Quote:
"The Israeli team is now waiting for approval for its
request to the international organization that deals
with meteorite and asteroid investigation, which is
connected with NASA, to name the space rock Timna so
it will appear in the catalogue."

Don't be misled here! The connection of NASA to the
IGPP (the "lab" at UCLA) and to the effort to classify
meteorites, such as this one, is much more minimal
than this article implies. The status of NASA funding
to this Institute (comprising parts of various
departments at UCLA) is presently very tenuous. And
WORSE, the direct funding to pay researchers to
actually perform the classifications was cut off a
couple of years ago!

This halt in funding is the singular source for a
whole host of problems that now beset the current
science of meteoritics. If NASA would like (to earn)
even more favorable publicity, such as this story
about the Israeli Meteorite, then I ardently recommend
that meteoriticists petition the principals involved
in these NASA funding decisions to reconsider their
present stance against funding for classification of
non-Antarctic meteorite finds.

Bob V.

-------------------------------------

[meteorite-list] Meteorite Found In Israel
Ron Baalke baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov
Mon, 25 Aug 2003 08:10:14 -0700 (PDT)


http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Zone&enDispWho=InThePress&enZone=InThePress&Date=8/25/03%209:00%20PM

Ancient meteorite found in Arava Israel 21c
August 25, 2003

A meteorite whose age is estimated at millions of
years was discovered near Timna in the Arava, Maa'ariv
reported. The space rock was checked by laboratories
at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
The laboratory's report said that the tiny stone
landed in Israel only "several decades or several
hundred years ago." The stone, whose outside is black
and scorched and is mingled with brown and light gray,
weighs 40grams and is the size of two walnuts. It was
found by members of the Pirhei Mada educational
project, which the Jordan Valley Academic College
administers to schools on the periphery. An
"astronomical vehicle" is part of the project, fitted
with various devices such as a telescope,
astronomical maps, and a model of a satellite-carrying
missile. A member of the vehicle's team, Gabriel
Shaked, who was one of the people who discovered the
stone, said yesterday that the test showed that it was
a fragment of Asteroid HAVH-6, a rocky heavenly object
that departed from its orbit between the sun and
Jupiter, and broke up. The original asteroid
approaches the earth once every three years.

The Israeli team is now waiting for approval for its
request to the international organization that deals
with meteorite and asteroid investigation, which
is connected with NASA, to name the space rock Timna
so it will appear in
the catalogue.



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Received on Mon 25 Aug 2003 04:42:39 PM PDT