[meteorite-list] Museum's Meteoric Move (Cranbourne Meteorite)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:38:23 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200708312238.PAA22106_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2007/august/news_12311.html

Museum's meteoric move
Natural History Museum, London
31 August 2007

[Image]
The Cranbourne meteorite, displayed here in the old Meteorite gallery,
weighs 3.5 tonnes. It took five hours to move it to its new home in
Earth Today and Tomorrow.

The largest meteorite at the Natural History Museum is safely in its new
home after a meteoric move this week.

The huge 3.5 tonne meteorite weighs the same as four cars. Its dramatic
move was needed to make space for a new mineral gallery space, The
Vault, opening on 28 November 2007.

Known as Cranbourne 1, the meteorite was found in Victoria, Australia,
in 1854. It is the first time the meteorite has been moved since it was
brought to the Museum in the nineteenth century.

The delicate operation

Ten specialist workers took five hours to manoeuvre the meteorite. It
was carefully lifted by crane and slotted through a second storey window
of the iconic Grade I listed Waterhouse building. It was a tight fit,
with only five millimetres to spare.

Moving the 3.5 tonne meteorite was a delicate operation.

After being carried to the Museum's Exhibition Road entrance and
manoeuvred through more windows, the Cranbourne was gently positioned in
Earth Today and Tomorrow where it is now on display to the public.
          
As old as the Earth?

Meteorites are fragments left over when asteroids collide. They come
from the asteroid belt, which is found in an area between Mars and
Jupiter. The meteorites are around 4.6 billion years old. Scientists
study them to try to find out how the Earth and our solar system formed.

Dr Caroline Smith, meteorite expert at the Museum says, 'We hold one of
the most comprehensive meteorite collections in the world, with material
collected from every continent.'

'Our collection is of great scientific importance for comparative
studies of meteorites that land all over the world.'

Falling to earth

About 40,000-60,000 tonnes of extraterrestrial material hits the Earth
every year, mostly as dust grains the size of sand. Every year about
1,000 meteorites land, ranging in size from a football to a washing machine.

Although it is very rare to see a meteorite land, people often witness
meteors as they fall through the sky, which are more commonly known as
shooting stars.

Iron meteorite

The Cranbourne meteorite is classified as an iron meteorite and is
mostly made up of metallic iron with some nickel content and traces of
rare elements.

It hit the Earth on swampy or sandy ground, but it did not leave a big
hole like some other meteorites, probably because of the angle at which
it came through the Earth's atmosphere.
          
See the Cranbourne

The Cranbourne now sits in Earth Today and Tomorrow in the Red Zone. It
will become the Meteorites gallery in the near future, revealing some of
the best examples from one of the world's largest meteorite collections.
Received on Fri 31 Aug 2007 06:38:23 PM PDT