[meteorite-list] Natural History Museum Blog Reveals Meteorite Search in Australia

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 15 23:21:28 2006
Message-ID: <200610160321.UAA20021_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART40995.html

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BLOG REVEALS METEORITE SEARCH IN AUSTRALIA
By Caroline Lewis
24 Hour Museum (United Kingdom)
October 13, 2006

Two scientists from the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London are
blogging their way across western Australia as they search for
meteorites, and it's a good read.

Museum meteorite curator Caroline Smith and meteorite researcher
Gretchen Benedix arrived in Australia on September 26, and arming
themselves with supplies set out on October 11 into the Nullarbor
Desert, where they expect to find plenty of meteorites. They're keeping
an online diary on the NHM website which you can read at
piclib.nhm.ac.uk/meteorite-blog <http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/meteorite-blog>

The meteorite collecting trip will also involve checking on the Desert
Fireball Network - a network of cameras in the Nullarbor that observes
meteorite fireballs and calculates where they fall. Recordings of
meteorite falls are extremely rare, with fewer than ten of the 32,000
known meteorites on Earth having had their falls captured on camera.

The accessible blog lets readers know about the scientists' exciting trip.

screenshot of a blog with a photo of people in the sun

The blog already features an incredible image taken by one of the
network cameras of a fireball shooting across the sky in the middle of
an electrical storm. Caroline, Gretchen and two colleagues from Imperial
College, London, and the Western Australian Museum, Perth will make sure
the cameras are all in good working order.

On the meteorite hunting side of things, there has already been some
success. Caroline found one within 30km of the group's first camp. And
it's no easy task spotting them amid all the local rocks. Tektites -
pieces of glass from impactors that hit the earth and send molten earth
rock all the way into space, only for it to fall back down because of
gravity - also crop up quite a bit.

The blog gives a great insight into Caroline and Gretchen's work, with
plenty of personal notes that might make readers quite envious of their
jobs at the NHM.

"Being a meteorite curator is my dream job," says Caroline. "I became
fascinated by meteorites while I was studying geology and I've never
lost interest."

At the NHM she looks after collection of nearly 2,000 meteorites, and
researches new samples that come to the museum. Although she works with
what she loves, Caroline has only ever seen meteorites in a museum or
laboratory environment, so she was rearing to go on the field trip.

Before she set off, she said: "I can't wait to go out into the field to
find meteorites where they have actually fallen. It will be so exciting
to discover a meteorite and know that I'm the first person to pick it up."

Gretchen has been on a meteorite hunt before, but in very different
conditions. Previously, she went to the Antarctic, so the current trip
is quite a different experience. The Antarctic is also a kind of desert,
though, albeit a frozen one, which provides good conditions for
preserving meteorites from contamination and degradation.

The collected meteorite samples will be brought back to the NHM (with
the appropriate permission granted under Australian law) for studying.

The pair will also be making a Nature Live video during the trip, which
will be webcast on the NHM site
<http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/nature-live/index.html>. Visit the
blog <http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/meteorite-blog/> to find out more.
Received on Sun 15 Oct 2006 11:21:26 PM PDT