[meteorite-list] Another NJ Find/Fall?

From: Pete Pete <rsvp321_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:47:23 -0500
Message-ID: <BAY104-F1242FBA0EA611AB433F6C5F8BC0_at_phx.gbl>

Greetings, all,

Something to make the NJ story a little more intriguing...note the reference
to the two small green stones embedded...

Cheers,
Pete



http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/NEWS/701080417/1001

North Brunswick object may be alien intruder
Home News Tribune Online 01/8/07
By DAVID STEGON
STAFF WRITER
dstegon at thnt.com
NORTH BRUNSWICK ? Maybe Marvin the Martian dropped it off on a jaunt across
the galaxy, or maybe it's just another ordinary rock, but a township couple
believes the black, gray, gold and green baseball-sized stone that
mysteriously appeared in their yard about a week ago may be from outer
space.



Joe and Kathleen Marascio hope they are the latest area residents to get a
visitor from outside the Earth's gravitational pull after a Freehold
Township couple discovered the rock that crashed into the side of their home
last week was a meteorite.

"Let's not mischaracterize this," said Joe Marascio, who has lived in North
Brunswick for 35 years. "I know the chances that this came from outer space
are slim, but all I know is that it looks like nothing I've ever seen on
Earth."

Joe Marascio said his wife was outside with the couple's husky-mix dog,
Bear, on Dec. 30. Kathleen Marascio was tying Bear to a tree the couple has
in their yard when she heard a whoosh and thump to her right.

Thinking nothing of it, she continued to play with the dog. A few nights
later, the couple was watching the local news when they heard the story from
Freehold and Kathleen Marascio's memory was sparked.

"She told me what happened the other day so we went into the yard and looked
for the rock," Joe Marascio said. "It was about half buried in the yard, but
we pulled it out, and it looked like nothing we had ever seen."

The rock is roughly the size of a baseball and weighs about 2 1/2 pounds,
Joe Marascio said. The object is mostly a light gray with slightly raised
areas that are a dull polished black, he said. He said there are concave
areas that appear yellow or gold and two smaller green stones embedded in
the rest of the rock.

"It's looks like a combination of many things," Kathleen Marascio said.

Joe Marascio called professor J.S. Delaney at the Rutgers Geological
Services and asked about the rock.

"He told me that over the past 25 years he gets a call or two a month from
people thinking their rocks are from space," Marascio said. "He said of all
the rocks he's seen, only two have actually been, so we know the chances are
slim."

That does not mean the couple has lost hope. Marascio said he will learn
today if the rock is from outer space after a series of tests are done.

In the case of the Freehold Township object, Rutgers University geologists
Delaney, Gail Ashley and Claire Condie and independent metallurgist Peter
Elliott determined it was an iron meteorite because of its density, magnetic
properties, markings and coloration, The Associated Press reported Friday.

Of course, rocks from outer space are nothing new.

Donna Foust, who lives in Coudersport, Pa., said she found two rocks from
outer space in the early '60s as a child. She heard of the case in Freehold
Township and wondered if the objects she found long ago were similar to the
meteorite that tested positive last week.

"When the rocks were originally tested, we were told that they contained
only one element that is naturally found on Earth," Foust said, "but we
never knew what the rest of it was. I wonder if all these rocks came from
the same place."

The Marascios wonder as well.

David Stegon:

(732) 565-7251;

dstegon at thnt.com

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Received on Mon 08 Jan 2007 12:47:23 PM PST