[meteorite-list] Meteorite Found in New Zealand?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:40:05 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200708312240.PAA22814_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3747035&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

It came from outer space
By LIN FERGUSON
Wanganui Chronicle (New Zealand)
September 1, 2007

It's been tossed in cupboards, drawers, sat on book shelves and been
lost for months on end.

But no more.

For this is no ordinary rock.

It's a meteorite - no question about it, a geologist told its owner this
week.

Te Rino Rapana, a shearer, of Ratana, said yesterday he wondered whether
his rock was a metorite a few years ago when it had shown up again after
being lost for a while.

Then the more he looked at it, the more he thought maybe it should be
checked out, he said.

"I always thought it had a sort of other-world look to it - you know, an
outer space look.

Now his space theory has been confirmed, the "rock" has gone from being
any-old-where to carefully wrapped up in tissue and tucked inside a soft
cotton drawstring bag.

He bought the rock/meteorite in a Wanganui garage sale more than 12
years ago, Mr Rapana said.

The sale was held by an elderly woman whose husband had died, and she
was selling up, he said.

"There was all sorts of stuff for sale, and there was this basket of rocks.

"Apparently, the old man was a keen rock collector."

Mr Rapana said he sifted through the rocks because there were some quite
colourful ones.

"And I've always quite liked rocks."

He bought a few rocks for 50c each. The meteorite was one of them, he said.

"I actually didn't know I had it until I got home and emptied them out."

He remembers a man, obviously a family member, coming to the house
during the sale and asking the woman where the rocks were.

"He said, 'You haven't sold them, have you?' When she said she had, he
got really angry and told her she was an idiot," Mr Rapana said.

He was standing near them while the conversation took place.

"Even though that man wanted her to get the rocks back, the woman stood
her ground and turned to me and said, 'A deal is a deal. The rocks are
yours'."

Last week his meteorite was described as an iron meteorite by the
geologist, he said.

"He wanted me to give it to him, but no way."

Meteorites are divided into two groups: stony meteorites and iron
meteorites. They are pieces of space debris that have survived a fiery
journey through the atmosphere to land on the earth's surface.

"It's pretty amazing all right that it's iron. My name, Te Rino, means
iron. Weird, eh?"

Next week Mr Rapana is taking his treasure to Massey University for
geologists to examine in the laboratories.

After that...

"Well, I'll probably sell it."
Received on Fri 31 Aug 2007 06:40:05 PM PDT