[meteorite-list] Meteorites From Vatican Collection On Display At California Planetarium

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:04 2004
Message-ID: <200208011626.JAA17676_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4907576&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=467992&rfi=6

Meteorites hit Cranbrook
By BOB GROSS
The Oakland Press
July 31, 2002

BLOOMFIELD HILLS - The little boy who haunted the halls of the Cranbrook
Institute of Science grew up to be an astronomer and curator of the
Vatican's meteorite collection.

"I grew up at 15 Mile and Cranbrook," said Brother Guy Consolmagno. "Every
weekend I'd ride my bicycle up here and wander through the exhibits.

"That's what inspired me to become a scientist."

Consolmagno was back at Cranbrook on Tuesday to deliver specimens from the
Vatican's meteorite collection, including a piece of rock that was blasted
from the surface of Mars by some kind of impact and fell to Earth about
1,000 years ago in the Dar al Gani region of the northern Sahara Desert in
Libya.

It's the first time the Vatican has ever lent any specimens from its
collection of meteorites - and Cranbrook gets to keep them for three years.

The Vatican meteorites, specimens from Cranbrook's own collection and
several meteorites on loan from the National Museum of Natural History will
be on display this fall in the lobby of the institute's planetarium as part
of a new exhibit called "Rocks from Space."

"This little exhibit is going to have some cool stuff in it," said John
Zawiskie, geologist and museum educator, as he accepted the meteorite
samples. "Thank you very much."

Michael Stafford, acting director of the institute, said the loan of the
specimens presents a unique opportunity for Cranbrook and residents.

"We have specimens that spend most of their time in Rome," he said. "Now
Oakland County residents are going to be able to see them in their own back
yard."

The samples on loan from the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gondolfo - the
pope's summer home - include a piece of a meteorite that fell near Allegan
in 1889 and a piece of a meteorite that fell near Ensisheim in the Alsace
region of France in 1492.

The Thunderstone, as it's called, has an interesting history. It was seized
upon by the Emperor Maximilian as a portent of victory.

After he defeated a larger French army, the stone was bolted to the door of
the Ensisheim church, said Zawiskie, where it stayed for 300 years. It was
taken down during the French Revolution and the greater part of it remains
in the Ensisheim town hall.

The specimens, together with a vial of chondrules - rocky matter that was
swept together to form rocky planets and asteroids - weigh about 200 grams.

Consolmagno carried the specimens to Cranbrook in a small 5-by-3-inch wooden
box.

They are literally priceless, having value only to scientists and
collectors.

"See that little fragment at the bottom?" said Consolmagno as he removed the
Mars rock from a plastic zippered bag. "Some crazy collector would pay a
thousand dollars for that."

Earth not likely to be hit by meteor

It's nice to know that a newly discovered 1.2-mile-wide asteroid will miss
the Earth in 2019.

But the chances weren't all that great to begin with, said Brother Guy
Consolmagno.

"The odds of being hit by a car crossing the street are much greater," said
Consolmagno, curator of the Vatican meteorite collection and a native of
Birmingham. He was at the Cranbrook Institute of Science on Tuesday to
deliver samples of meteorites on loan from the Vatican's collection.

Last week, preliminary calculations of the orbital path traveled by asteroid
2002 NT7 suggested the space rock had about a 1-in-250,000 chance of plowing
into the Earth on Feb. 1, 2019. Such an impact would cause devastation on a
continental scale.

Follow-up observations during the weekend showed the asteroid and the Earth
won't meet - at least for now, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
on Monday.

An asteroid collision with the Earth 63 million years ago likely caused
dinosaurs to become extinct.

Such an event today, said Consolmagno, "would have such enormous
consequences that it would be useful to know where these things are."

Useful - and perhaps lucrative.

"The net worth of the metal alone in a 1-kilometer asteroid is something
like 100 trillion dollars," said Consolmagno. "How much would it cost to go
up there and collect it? About the same amount."

But the cost will come down as humans become more used to living in space,
he said, and when that happens, "it's useful to know which gold mine is
coming toward us."
Received on Thu 01 Aug 2002 12:26:10 PM PDT