[meteorite-list] Suspected Meteorite Hits Illinois Home

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 17:13:52 -0700
Message-ID: <07f001c75f84$58374f10$2721500a_at_bellatrix>

I'm hard pressed to imagine a scenario by which a meteorite can land at
anything other than a near vertical angle. From the picture, it's
obvious this thing had some serious velocity (judging by the damage
especially to the magazine); I'll be curious to see what it turns out to
be. Maybe it got deflected by something like a rain gutter outside the
window?

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 3:34 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Suspected Meteorite Hits Illinois Home


>
> http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/03/05/news/doc45ec62e14a6c2722505892.txt
>
> Suspected meteorite hits Bloomington home
> By M.K. Guetersloh
> Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)
> March 5, 2007
>
> UPDATE 2:30 p.m. BLOOMINGTON - A Bloomington couple caught a falling
> star Monday morning not quite in their pockets but in a bedroom of
> their
> house.
>
> A chunk of metal that crashed through the bedroom window of David and
> Dee Riddle just after 9:30 a.m. appears may be a meteorite but it also
> could be a piece of space junk according to preliminary analysis by
> several Illinois State University geology professors.
>
> However, the professors who had a look at it agree that whatever the
> heavy, gray metal-based object that crashed through their window
> definitely came from space.
>
> Robert "Skip" Nelson, a professor of geology at ISU, came out to
> Riddles' home to take a look at the object, which is about the size
> and
> shape of deck of cards.
>
> Nelson said based on the density of the object, the metal could be an
> iron-nickel mixture or a heavy stainless steel. It is unlikely a
> satellite or spacecraft would contain metal that heavy and dense,
> Nelson
> said.
>
> "In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the
> real thing," Nelson said.
>
> Nelson said to be sure the next step will be to call the United State
> Geological Survey's meteorite center in Flagstaff, Ariz.
>
> Because of the steep entry angle into the house and the speed the
> object
> crashed into the house, Nelson said is definitely was not a rock
> thrown
> at the window.
>
> Eric Peterson, an assistant professor of geology, calculated the speed
> the possible meteorite hit the home was at least 60 miles an hour.
>
> Dee Riddle, who runs a day-care out of their Partner Place house, said
> she heard the crash and felt the house shake around 9:30 a.m.
>
> "My first thought was a bathroom mirror fell so I immediately started
> looking," Riddle said. "That's when I found the hole in the
> mini-blinds
> and the broken window.
>
> "We were just lucky no one was sitting at the computer when it
> happened."
>
> In addition to breaking through the window, the possible meteorite hit
> the computer desk putting a hole through the particle board.
>
> Nelson said the last confirmed meteorite to hit Bloomington was in the
> 1930s.
Received on Mon 05 Mar 2007 07:13:52 PM PST