[meteorite-list] NJO - Votes

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 13:06:55 -0800
Message-ID: <A8044CCD89B24B458AE36254DCA2BD0702C404AD_at_0005-its-exmp01.us.saic.com>

Hi All,

I was surprised that our local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles closed the
news last night (just before Jay Leno) with a 30-second blurb on the
mystery metal object from New Jersey. So I was finally able to see
high-definition video of the object being rotated, allowing a better
feel for the surface texture. It is a bit peanut-shaped, and certainly
larger than a golf ball which means its specific gravity is
correspondingly
lower -- less than 7 I should think. The surface looked melted in some
spots (like viscous drips), but in other areas I thought I could see
glints from small, metallic crystal faces -- although not unlike the
octahedrite crystals one sees in the higher quality Nantan pieces.

If this had been a find rather than a fall, I'd be very encouraged
by its density and appearance. But as a fresh fall, it looks, well,
~wrong~. Where is the crust of magnetite? How could it look the way
it does if it just screamed through our upper atmosphere at 8+ miles
per second?

So my vote is that if it turns out to be a meteorite, foul play is
involved. Determining whether it is a meteorite or not should take
about 20 seconds by any regular member of this list examining the
specimen firsthand. If it ~is~ a meteorite, the next step would
be to check its gamma ray spectrum for evidence of short-lived,
cosmic-ray-induced radioactive isotopes in order to prove it was
recently in space.

On a final note, by nature I'm suspicious of coincidences; given
the recent reentry of the Soyuz third stage booster over Wyoming/
Colorado the morning of January 4th, I thought it would be a good
idea to check that rocket body's ground track for the evening of
January 2nd over New Jersey! For example, there may have been
pyro bolts or other deployment hardware related to the launch that
would have had different drag coefficients, causing them to reenter
earlier or later than the rocket body. Great idea on paper; alas,
there were no passes close to New Jersey in the hours prior to
9pm on Tuesday night.

--Rob
Received on Fri 05 Jan 2007 04:06:55 PM PST