[meteorite-list] Article on meteorite collecting, eh.

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 12:12:53 -0400
Message-ID: <bh6ec3h697fd43rdec6cnm8tn4m9q8tdpl_at_4ax.com>

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/247421


Nerds? Yes. Also rock stars
 TheStar.com - sciencetech - Nerds? Yes. Also rock stars
 
Welcome to the exclusive world of meteor-hunters, where the booty is billions of
years older than Earth

August 18, 2007
Tamsyn Burgmann
Staff reporter

Patrick Herman owns one of the oldest, rarest collections on earth. It dates 4.5
billion years. It's harder to find than diamonds. Its contents are out of this
world. Literally.

Herman ? father, consultant, traveller, prospector ? moonlights as a meteorite
hunter.

"Some Bedouin riding on a camel is a clich? at this point," Herman says, a glint
in his eyes, "but he sees a black rock in the sand, gets off his camel and picks
it up.

"It's the oldest material that anyone of us will probably ever be able to hold
in our hand ? I get goosebumps just thinking about it."

Just like the curious nomad, the celestial treasures leave the 42-year-old
Torontonian star-struck. Over the last three years, he's acquired, traded and
excavated hundreds of meteorites ? natural objects born with the solar system
that later crashed-landed on Earth.

But while the majority of meteorites available to collectors in the past 15
years have come from the Sahara, Herman prefers hunting closer to home. Armed
with metal detector, shovel and $2-per-acre lease, he's unearthed many a rusty
tool during three expeditions to the United States ? but also, several prized
meteorites.

Herman isn't alone out there. A tight-knit band of meteorite collectors dot the
globe, teaming up for "recovery missions," gathering for "etching" parties,
skylarking over stupefying scientific implications and clustering on the
Internet to flaunt their gems.

"Every kid dreams of having a piece of Mars or the moon, especially growing up
during the Apollo years," says Owen Sound-based collector and amateur meteorite
researcher Mike Tettenborn, 46. "I guess I never outgrew that."

Herman's affair with the heavens began with a serendipitous eBay discovery.
About the size of a baseball, the dense 2.5-kilogram rock fell to earth in
Argentina during the 15th century. It cost him $150.

"Once I had the one I bought on the kitchen table, it was awesome to imagine it
floating through space for 4.5 billion years," Herman said. "Then it crashed to
earth and now I have it."

Only a handful of Canadian people and institutions have the expertise to
authenticate meteors? via chemical tests and visual inspection ? including
experts at the U of T, the University of Calgary, which leads Prairie searches,
or the government-funded Geological Survey of Canada. There's a huge rush that
comes with learning your rock is the real deal, hunters say.

"It was an absolutely wild situation," says Dr. Robert Herd, who in June 1994
identified a meteorite for locals of St-Robert de Sorel, east of Montreal.
Thousands saw a fireball tear through the sky followed by a loud sonic boom. But
it was grazing cows who recognized something strange had landed in their
pasture.

"After that, a huge hunt went on by the locals, they brought me back more
pieces," Herd said. "You suddenly realize something has arrived on Earth that
was in space a long, long time. It was a crazy time, no two ways about it."

Herd, curator of the GSC's National Collections, part of the natural resources
ministry, has journeyed twice within Canada to identify "falls" ? when someone
observes a meteorite crashing to earth ? and has foraged several times in the
Arctic. He said prices start at about $1 per gram, with lunar samples,
considered the rarest, fetching as much as $25,000 to $30,000 per gram. A
meteorite's classification (there are three known types), quantity, rarity,
whether it's a "fall" or "find" and how long it's been there all contribute to
its valuation.

"If you just think in dollar terms, that reduces it," says Herman, who considers
his first find "priceless."

But for all the mooning over these cosmic dregs, they're really not much to look
at. Even enthusiasts admit the black rocks are similar on the outside ? even
boring. (The Royal Ontario Museum keeps its 300-specimen collection tucked away
in the basement, though an exhibit is planned for fall 2008.)

"But inside, they're a treasure trove of information," Herd says. "They're like
thousands of little worlds you can analyze."

Meteorites are snapshots from the beginning of our solar system, Ian Nicklin, a
technician at the ROM, explains. Earth rocks only date about 3 billion years in
our 14 billion-year-old universe, retaining few secrets because our rocks
continually change in our geologically active world.

Scientists theorize meteorites are made from particles of exploded stars that
clumped together when our solar system formed and cooled over millions of years.

Sliced open meteorites have revealed perfectly preserved minerals, trapped
gases, water, presolar grains and even organic compounds like amino acids. At an
etching bash, enthusiasts cut open meteorites and apply nitric acid to expose
the stunning structure beneath.

All of which helps unravel puzzles such as how planets were formed, what we're
made of and how the universe works, while also lending credence to the stuff
science fiction thrives on.

"There's a theory that the building blocks of life arrived on Earth through
meteorites," Tettenborn says. "It also means there could be life elsewhere in
the universe."
Received on Sat 18 Aug 2007 12:12:53 PM PDT