[meteorite-list] Meteorite Found in Ohio?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Dec 1 12:26:33 2004
Message-ID: <200412011726.JAA06150_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.coshoctontribune.com/news/stories/20041201/localnews/1678211.html

A local star gazer finds a fallen star
By Jim Konkoly
Coshocton Tribune (Ohio)
December 1, 2004

COSHOCTON -- For the second time in her life, a falling star has come
within a few yards of Phyllis Rice.

"My heavens," she said last week when Coshocton High School science
teacher Dan Zielinski examined the unusual rock she had found lodged in
the screen of her patio door.

Zielinski confirmed what Rice suspected.

During the last meteor shower on the nights of Nov. 15 and 16, a small
falling star hit the home of Phyllis and her husband Larry Rice at 1921
Adams Street.

About a half inch in diameter, black on one side and a rusty, burnt
orange color on the other, this rock has all the characteristics of a
meteorite, said Zielinski, who teaches astronomy and other sciences at
the high school and directs the planetarium at Central Elementary School.

"I'm not the expert on meteorites," he added. "But I can say it's highly
likely that this is a meteorite, a falling star, based on the texture
and the color, and the angle of impact on the screen."

For many years, Phyllis has enjoyed watching meteor showers, a hobby she
began when daughters Lori and Sharon were growing up.

"We'd take sleeping bags and lay them down on the deck so we could keep
watch on the sky," she said.

While she's seen many shooting stars streak across the night sky over
the years, Phyllis didn't see the one that fell on her house.

On the last night of the recent meteor shower, she checked the night sky
occasionally up until midnight and then gave up when she hadn't seen any
celestial activity. The next morning she discovered the unusual rock
stuck in her screen door.

Phyllis thinks the remnant of a shooting star would make a great object
for one of her younger grandchildren to take to school for show and tell.

For sure, it brought back a happy childhood memory for her.

"When I was small, about 10 or 11, my mother and I were walking on North
Eighth Street, and we saw a shooting star fall to the ground right in
front of us," she said.

Meteors are not rare, Zielinski said.

"(On average), a shooting star occurs every eight seconds somewhere in
the world," he said. But finding a meteorite is far from a common
occurrence.

"When I first saw it," Phyllis recalled, "I said, 'What in the world is
this?'"

Based on Zielinski's expertise, she learned that, almost certainly, it
came from out of this world.
Received on Wed 01 Dec 2004 12:26:28 PM PST