[meteorite-list] Resolved!

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 02:12:46 -0500
Message-ID: <i98913hni1jihv6hg9eq2p4aejtq87crp8_at_4ax.com>

Big shocker here:

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/04/05/news/doc46142bcd06542966362700.txt

Metal fragment that hit home not a meteorite

BLOOMINGTON -- The chunk of metal that crashed though a Bloomington couple?s
home last month was not a meteorite but something man-made.

But Robert ?Skip? Nelson, a professor of geology at Illinois State University,
said the theory may be just as unique as he pieces together how the piece of
metal made its way March 5 into David and Dee Riddle?s house at Partner Place.

Nelson said the metal object appears to have been ejected from a wood grinder
from Twin City Wood Recycling. ?That?s almost as amazing as it being a
meteorite,? Nelson said.

The metal object is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs nearly a pound.
Because of its weight and the steep angle with which it hit the house, Nelson
initially thought it could have been a meteorite.

John Wollrab, owner of the recycling company, said he contacted university
scientists within days of learning about it.

?I had heard about it and thought it was interesting,? Wollrab said. ?It was
close to my business and we were outside that day running the grinder so it made
me wonder if it was something that came out of the grinder.?

Wollrab let university professors studying the object come out to his business
to take measurements.

If it was ejected from the grinder, Nelson said, the chunk of metal would have
traveled about 300 meters, or roughly 900 feet.

?The force to push it that far would have been pretty great,? Nelson said.

The speed the object was traveling when it crashed through the Riddles? bedroom
window and punched through a computer desk would have been ?a couple of hundred
miles an hour,? Nelson added.

Wollrab said he would be surprised if something could be ejected from the
machinery with enough force to travel that far. ?I think it is still
speculation,? Wollrab said.

Dee Riddle said she, too, is surprised by Nelson?s theory.

?I just don?t understand how that could have traveled that far,? she said.

Nelson doesn?t know where the metal came from. He said it did not come from the
machinery but may have been something mixed in with the wood.
Received on Thu 05 Apr 2007 03:12:46 AM PDT