[meteorite-list] Articles - Berthoud

From: Matt Morgan <mmorgan_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Oct 12 11:41:42 2004
Message-ID: <002501c4b071$54d429c0$0d97040a_at_itsn1w2k>

LOL! If only they knew! Could send their son to college for free and
scientists would have some.
Idealistcally yours,
Matt

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Freeman" <dfreeman_at_fascination.com>
To: "ken newton" <magellon_at_earthlink.net>
Cc: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Articles - Berthoud


> Dear All;
> Nice article...."can fetch up to a $1 a gram", yikes! Must be all
> meteorites are over priced! Hah! err, bah!
> Dave F.
>
>
>
> ken newton wrote:
>
> >
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3247775,00.html
> >
> >
> > Berthoud meteorite rocks scientists
> >
> > By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
> > October 12, 2004
> >
> > BOULDER - Out of a clear blue sky, a bit of space history as old as
> > the solar system and no bigger than a softball slammed into the soft,
> > wet earth beside a Berthoud family's home Oct. 5.
> >
> > John Whiteis saw light and a little bit of dirt move. His wife,
> > Meghan, saw a dark streak. Their 19-year-old son, Casper, heard
> > something like this:
> >
> > "Wsssssssshh. Thud!"
> >
> > "We were kind of trying to figure out what we had just witnessed,"
> > said John Whiteis, a former auto mechanic and self-described Star Trek
> > fan.
> >
> > At first he thought it might be a piece of a passing plane. But there
> > were none overhead.
> >
> > Maybe a model rocket launched by a neighbor, they wondered. Nah.
> >
> > A few moments passed before the family realized what they had just
> > seen: a shiny, black meteorite plunging at more than 100 mph into a
> > pasture, just 75 feet from their home.
> >
> > Scientists say meteorites pepper the Earth's atmosphere daily, almost
> > every hour. Most burn up as "shooting stars." Some land in sizes as
> > small as a grain of sand.
> >
> > The Whiteis family, however, witnessed only the fifth confirmed
> > sighting of a meteorite hitting the ground in Colorado since 1924.
> >
> > On Monday, the family gathered at the University of Coloradoto talk
> > about their discovery along with a panel of geologists and astronomers.
> >
> > Judging by their reactions, it was a close call as to which group was
> > more excited by the find: the family or the scientists.
> >
> > "Isn't this exciting?" CU geologist Steve Mojzsis gushed. "Thank you
> > for bringing the meteorite in."
> >
> > CU planetary scientist Nick Schneider described his reaction when he
> > first heard Casper Whiteis' rendition of how the meteorite sounded as
> > it landed.
> >
> > "I got chills up and down my spine hearing that description,"
> > Schneider said. "I get a zing from this rock."
> >
> > "This came from outer space. It probably took a million years to get
> > here," he added. "If you're feeling a little bit old, just come and
> > touch this and it'll put things in perspective."
> >
> > If not for some furniture the Whiteis family bought at an auction last
> > weekend, this meteorite might have fallen to earth unseen.
> >
> > It rained on Monday, so the furniture stayed in the vehicle. On
> > Tuesday, John Whiteis was home from work early, so in came the
> > furniture. And down came the meteorite.
> >
> > It took the family about 25 minutes after impact to locate the
meteorite.
> >
> > A smooth black surface about the size of a golf ball peeked out from
> > under the dirt.
> >
> > John Whiteis turned back to the house to get a shovel. But before he
> > could get there, Casper had grabbed a hammer and dug it out of the
earth.
> >
> > By then it was cool to the touch, said Casper, an aeronautics
> > engineering student at AIMS Community College, who hopes to study at
> > CU some day.
> >
> > While meteorites have value to collectors and can fetch up to $1 a
> > gram, the Whiteis family say their two-pound meteorite is not for
> > sale. Instead they plan to let CU scientists study the rock and put it
> > on public display.
> >
> > Scientists at CU also hope to study the meteorite and compile other
> > eyewitness accounts of any fireball sightings that day to determine
> > its trajectory.
> >
> > On Saturday, with permission from local property owners, scientists
> > and volunteers hope to search up to four square miles of the area
> > around the Whiteis home for other fragments.
> >
> > (photo)
> >
> > Megan and John Whiteis, of Berthoud, look at a meteorite during a news
> > conference Monday at the University of Colorado Discovery Learning
> > Center in Boulder. The meteorite landed in their back yard Oct. 5 and
> > they are providing it to CU researchers for scientific analysis.
> >
> > ensslinj_at_RockyMountainNews.com <mailto:ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com>
> > or 303-892-5291
> >
> > Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
> >
> > __________________________________________________________
> >
> > http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2461705,00.html#
> >
> > DenverPost.com
> > Article Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2004
> >
> > Rock of ages lands in couple's backyard
> >
> > By Katy Human
> > Denver Post Staff Writer
> >
> > A time capsule fell into a Berthoud backyard last week.
> >
> > Megan and John Whiteis walked out their back door on the afternoon of
> > Oct. 5 as a softball-sized meteorite streaked over their heads,
> > plunging itself into a horse pasture about 100 feet away.
> >
> > "It sounded like a pretty good- sized model rocket, only like it was
> > going down instead of going up," said Megan Whiteis. "Then it hit ...
> > with a pretty good thud."
> >
> > Colorado scientists and others are now probing the stony meteorite -
> > one of only five in the state's recorded history ever to be seen in
> > the sky and then found on the ground - for information about the
> > Earth's birth.
> >
> > "Meteorites are the leftovers, the table scraps from the solar system
> > that tell us about our origins 4.5 billion years ago, when the planets
> > formed," said Steve Mojzsis, a University of Colorado geologist.
> >
> > The meteorite is scientifically valuable for a variety of reasons,
> > including its rare composition - only about 5 percent of all
> > meteorites that fall to Earth are composed of the lava-like material
> > found in this one, Mojzsis said.
> >
> > He speculated that it might have broken off Vesta, an asteroid about
> > 325 miles across that lies in the belt between Mars and Jupiter.
> >
> > Also, the meteorite may still be emitting gases that were trapped
> > inside because of the chill of space, said Scott Palo, an aerospace
> > engineer at CU who is overseeing scientific study of the meteorite.
> > Those gases could help scientists understand how our own planet -
> > essentially a collection of meteorites that clumped together -
> > generated its atmosphere, Palo said.
> >
> > Moreover, he said, he hopes scientists will be able to reproduce the
> > object's trajectory through the atmosphere, to better understand where
> > it came from. During the past several years, many fireballs have
> > streaked through Western skies in early October, possibly because of
> > their location in space relative to Earth.
> >
> > The meteorite may be part of a bigger one that split up in the
> > atmosphere.
> >
> > Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-820-1910 or
> > khuman_at_denverpost.com .
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>
>
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Received on Tue 12 Oct 2004 11:36:23 AM PDT