[meteorite-list] Grimsby family shows off visitor from space

From: Greg Stanley <stanleygregr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:22:22 -0700
Message-ID: <SNT117-W313CABEE286DC2363B2535D2C40_at_phx.gbl>

All:

Take a look.? Looks like the real deal.? A hammer!

Greg S.


http://beta.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2133932




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Yvonne and Tony Garchinski are the proud new owners of five
tiny meteorite fragments.

They also have a new windshield, after the space rock smashed into their
Pathfinder three weeks ago.

"I thought it was vandalism, for sure," said Tony Friday as dozens
of reporters converged on his west Grismby home. "Who thinks a meteorite
is going to crash-land on your car?"

The golf ball-sized fragment is likely part of a larger meteorite that lit
up the skies of southern Ontario
Sept. 25.

The fireball was first picked up by cameras operated by the University of
Western Ontario's physics and astronomy department 100 kilometres above Guelph
as it streaked southeastward at a speed of about 75,000 kilometres per hour.

Scientists released that footage Oct. 7 and began searching a
12-square-kilometre area near Grimsby
where they thought the meteor fell.

Only after seeing the footage on television did the Grimsby family realize their car-bashing
vandal might instead be an alien invader.

"We filed a police report and everything," said a laughing Yvonne,
who held out the tiny silver and black space rock pieces for reporters to see
Friday.

After reading up on the meteorite search, Yvonne called Phil McCausland, an
astrophysicist at the University
 of Western Ontario, who
verified the tiny rocks were out of this world.

"They're probably the oldest rocks that you or I or anyone else are
every going to hold," McCausland said. "it's pretty exciting."

The Garchinskis own the window-smashing space pebbles, but they've agreed to
loan them to university researchers for three months.


                                               
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Received on Fri 16 Oct 2009 02:22:22 PM PDT