[meteorite-list] Millions Of Pennies From Heaven

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:20 2004
Message-ID: <01df01c38913$96ee4f10$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

Here we go, the billion dollar meteorite has appeared. This meteorite is a
chondrite, not a mars rock, nothing more. Great stone, not worth millions
much less $100,000. It looks like Park Forest all over again. I spoke to the
owner just now and have arranged a specimen to be classified. He is going to
Europe and will not discuss sale until the specimen is classified in a month
or two. So at least we all have time to relax before the feeding frenzy
starts in earnest.
Mike Farmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 11:03 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Millions Of Pennies From Heaven


>
>
> http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/106510888851640.xml
>
> Millions of pennies from heaven
>
> Meteorite may bring out-of-world payday
>
> By Mark Schleifstein
> nola.com (Louisiana)
> October 2, 2003
>
> The ugly chunk of tan rock that crashed through the Uptown home of Roy
Fausset on
> Sept. 23 was an astronomical event in more ways than one.
>
> No sooner had Tulane University geologist Stephen Nelson declared the rock
a
> meteorite than offers began pouring in to buy pieces of it at sky-high
prices: $25,000
> to $50,000 a chunk.
>
> Scientists, though less readily able to bring such large sums of
> money to bear, also want to study pieces of the rock to look
> for clues about the beginning of the universe some 4.6 billion
> years ago.
>
> Among collectors, however, a much younger rock would be
> worth more. If examination determines it's a mere 200
> million years old and contains a specific mix of minerals and
> chemicals, the meteorite may have originated from Mars, said
> Tracy Gregg, a geology professor at the State University of New
> York-Buffalo and chair of the Geological Society of America's planetary
geology
> division.
>
> "The worth of a meteorite is like any other precious stone," Gregg said.
"It's related
> to scarcity, and the ones worth the most are those that came from Mars."
>
> The going rate for a Mars rock? $1,500 per gram. Fausset's weighs well
over a
> pound, or more than 450 grams.
>
> At that rate, a troy ounce of a Mars meteorite would be worth $46,500, or
about 120
> times the price of pure gold at Wednesday's prices on the commodities
exchange.
>
> Even if not from Mars, the pieces could be worth a small fortune,
collectors say.
>
> That's why Fausset's find has been moved into a secure storage facility,
he said. The
> idea that a rock could be that valuable got him thinking about security
quickly.
>
> "But whether it came from Mars or dates back to the beginning of our solar
system,
> it's a fascinating piece of rock that tells an incredible story," Gregg
said.
>
> Trade in meteorite chunks has skyrocketed in recent years, in part thanks
to the
> Internet, said Matt Morgan, a full-time geologist with the Colorado
Geological
> Survey and a part-time trader.
>
> On his Mile High Meteorites Web site, Morgan is offering tiny pieces of
his varied
> collection for thousands of dollars.
>
> For instance, a 2.294-gram fragment of a meteorite found in Buenos Aires,
> Argentina, in 1979 sells for $11,470.
>
> "I always wanted a piece of a meteorite, even when I was a child," Morgan
said.
>
> Robert Wesel of Hillsboro, Ore., got hooked after buying a meteorite
fragment at the
> Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
>
> "At the time, I had no idea that people could own such a thing," said
Wesel, a
> registered nurse.
>
> Then he went to a gem show and discovered a kiosk selling meteorites.
>
> "I think I spent about $4,000 with that guy on the spot, and that's what
really
> launched it," he said. "I walked away with a price list . . . and later
bought more
> pieces. Then I got a computer, and in 1998 I found eBay."
>
> Word of meteorite finds travels quickly among dealers, he said.
>
> "You need to keep an ear to the ground, and if you hear something, you try
to ally
> yourself with someone in the area or go there yourself," he said.
>
> In March, he heard about a meteorite strike in a Chicago suburb and,
learning that
> pieces of the meteorite were strewn through a large neighborhood, drove
there to
> scavenge.
>
> "Everybody who collects does it for a different reason," he said. "Some
collect on a
> map, one sample from every country. Others are trying to get an A-to-Z
collection of
> different types of meteorites."
>
> Often, pieces of meteorites end up in museum collections, despite their
inability to
> match the prices paid by private collectors, said Denton Ebel, a curator
with the new
> Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites at the American Museum of Natural History
in New
> York City.
>
> The museum has more than 120 meteorites on display, and more than 1,250 in
its
> collection.
>
> Samples in the collection are carefully analyzed to ensure they are
meteorites and to
> attempt to determine their origin.
>
> A 30-micron-thick slice, as thin as a human hair, is cut off a sample and
viewed
> through a scanning electron microscope to determine the texture of the
rock crystals.
> Then it's examined with other instruments to find out its chemical
composition.
>
> On the outside of most meteorites is a thin layer of black material known
as a fusion
> crust.
>
> "It's essentially glass," Ebel said, the result of the outer layer of the
rock melting as
> it enters Earth's atmosphere.
>
> On rare occasions, eyewitnesses can provide enough evidence to determine a
> meteorite's probable track through space.
>
> "Seven or eight meteorite falls on Earth have been witnessed and
photographed in
> such a way that their orbits could be traced backward, and they tend to
come from the
> asteroid belt," he said, referring to the band of rocks circling the sun
in the wide space
> between Mars and Jupiter.
>
> Jupiter's gravity is so intense that it ejects some of the rocks into deep
space outside
> this solar system, or into the inner part of the solar system toward
Earth. A
> meteorite is the name given to one of those pieces when it falls to
Earth's surface.
>
> The asteroids are believed to be the remains of small proto-planets --
collections of
> matter that fused together at the creation of this solar system, 4.6
billion years ago.
> They stayed together long enough for their gravity to have melted the
heavier
> elements, such as iron, which sank into their centers. Lighter elements
formed a rock
> mantle on the surface.
>
> Over the next 40 million years, these orbs were pulled apart, probably by
the
> gravitational force of Jupiter or by collisions with other asteroids.
>
> On rare occasions, a wayward asteroid would hit the surface of Mars at
just the right
> angle, about 15 degrees, to blast a piece of that planet's surface into
space at the
> speed necessary to escape Mars' gravitational pull, Gregg said.
>
> Recent research indicates that places where that has happened on Mars have
been
> where relatively young surface formations are found.
>
> When scientists have broken open microscopic bubbles inside Martian
meteorites,
> they've found a mix of gases that have matched those collected from the
planet's
> surface in 1976 by NASA's Viking landers.
>
> Fausset has sent a small sample of his find to a laboratory to determine
what kind of
> meteorite it is.
>
> Nelson's initial analysis indicates it contains a mixture of minerals --
olivine,
> pyroxene, plagioclase and troilite -- often found in "stony meteorites"
called
> chondrites that hail from the asteroid belt, Ebel said.
>
> Such a rock would be older than any rock found on Earth, Gregg said.
That's because
> the Earth's surface has been changing since it was formed: Water has
eroded its
> surface, and the continents have actually been sucked back into the center
of the
> Earth along the underwater edges of the huge tectonic plates on which the
continents
> have been built. New rock has been formed through volcanic action,
replacing the
> older material.
>
> "We just don't have such old surfaces left on Earth," she said.
>
> . . . . . . .
>
> Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein_at_timespicayune.com or
(504)
> 826-3327.
>
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Received on Thu 02 Oct 2003 02:32:52 PM PDT