[meteorite-list] Hans Solo?

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Apr 19 14:07:06 2006
Message-ID: <qgla42h85h4nk4l5hq73m17q9srff2eove_at_4ax.com>

http://www.parsonssun.com/news/articles/edit041806.shtml

Tuesday editorial
Tuesday editorial


One in a million

Star Wars fans thrill over a 3-D ride with Hans Solo, through meteor fields in
intergalactic flight, but how many of them know that western Kansas is the final
resting place for thousands of these speeding rocks? If the thrill of the
fictional ride with Solo were so breathtaking, wouldn't the reality of putting a
human hand on an olivine crystal-embedded pallasite be the ultimate?

Kansas has long been known as a place where meteorites came to their thudding
rest, now embedded 5 to 7 feet below the soil's surface.

Greensburg, mostly known for the world's largest hand-dug well, is also home to
a monster 1,000-pound meteorite that rests on a heavy-duty shelf in the back of
the town's little museum. Only recently has the community concluded that
marketing the rock would draw more people than marketing the well. Space lovers,
sci-fi fans, geologists - the audience that would actually be willing to drive
to Greensburg for meteorites is unlimited, whereas the people willing to drive
for hours to peer into a giant well is finite.

Now Kiowa County farmers are finding that the meteorites in their fields may be
worth more than the crops they can coax from the dry earth, at up to $20,000 for
a 20-pound jewel. And, even better, they are thinking beyond just selling them
to collectors, and envisioning a museum to attract a worldwide audience.

It is believed these meteorites fell to Earth about 20,000 years ago, and that
they first garnered general interest in the 1920s and 1930s. Interest waned
after the monster rock at Greensburg was found in 1949, until last fall when a
professional meteorite hunter uncovered a 1,400-pound specimen.

The national media picked up on the story and a new frenzy began. It is critical
for the appropriate parties in Kansas to shift into warpspeed while it can take
advantage of that interest. (And is it only coincidence that the new Kansas logo
has a star streaking above the state? Could it really be an omen falling star of
a meteor finding its way to Kansas?)

In space they are known as meteors; in Earth's atmosphere they are known as
falling stars, where most vaporize. On Earth, the few that survive become known
as meteorites.

In Kansas, they could become known as "the Force" that puts the state on a map
of international destinations, and one can only speculate that Hans Solo would
reply to us, as he once did to Luke Skywalker, "Great shot, kid; that was one in
a million!"

- Ann Charles

Editor and publisher


04/18/2006; 1:57:00 PM
Received on Tue 18 Apr 2006 05:13:50 PM PDT