[meteorite-list] NPA 01-15-1970 (Lost City) Meteorite Fragments Fall On Oklahoma

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Oct 22 11:27:06 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-F1sQwY6YHkidcD0000420a_at_hotmail.com>

Paper: Valley Morning Star
City: Harlingen, Texas
Date: Thursday, January 15, 1970
Page: B-8

Meteorite Fragments Fall On Oklahoma

     WASHINGTON (UPI) - Excited scientist Wednesday were studying a 21.6
pound "star" which fell in Oklahoma 11 days ago for clues to the creation of
the planets and perhaps of the universe itself.
     The "star" a stony meteorite, was the first ever found soon after its
fall as the result of a deliberate attempt by man to plot the impact point
of a visitor from space with photographs.
     Even so, recovery of the meteorite was described as a fantastic event
for which "exceedingly lucky" would be weak understatement. Had the space
rock bounced a small distance from where it was found, it might never have
been discovered.
     Scientists concerned with how the solar system and its planets came
into being are eager to get hold of meteorites as soon as possible after
they land.
     This is because radioactivity induced in these fragments of space
debris by millions of years of exposure to cosmic rays, which may be clues
to how the universe was created, quickly fades after a meteorite plunges
through the protective blanket of the earth's atmosphere.
     It was the first dramatic triumph of the Prairie Network, a system of
16 automatic camera stations operated since 1964 in seven Midwestern states
by the Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory (SAO),
Cambridge, Mass., under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).

(end)
Received on Fri 22 Oct 2004 11:26:26 AM PDT