[meteorite-list] New Jersey 'Meteorite' Might Be Space Junk

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 16:05:25 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200705112305.QAA17845_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4797076.html

`Meteorite' turns out to be space junk
By JANET FRANKSTON LORIN
Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. - A mysterious metallic object that crashed through the
roof of a New Jersey home earlier this year was not a meteorite after
all, but probably a piece of space junk, scientists said Friday.

The silvery object was made of a stainless-steel alloy that does not
occur in nature and is most likely "orbital debris" - part of a
satellite, rocket or some other spacecraft, said Rutgers University
geologist Jeremy Delaney.

"There's huge amounts of material that have been left by the various
space programs of the world," he said.

Srinivasan Nageswaran, whose family discovered the object after it
crashed through the roof and dented the tile bathroom floor at his home
in Freehold Township in January, was disappointed by the news.

"That's the nature of science," said the 46-year-old information
technology consultant "If the conclusion from the test says it's not a
meteorite, then it's not a meteorite. We have to move forward."

The object is slightly bigger than a golf ball and about as heavy as a
can of soup.

Delaney examined it at the police station and initially pronounced it an
iron meteorite based on its shape and density. So did other Rutgers
geologists and an independent metals expert.

But in April, it was taken to the American Museum of Natural History in
New York, where a new variable-pressure scanning electron microscope was
used to establish its composition.

"I was wrong," Delaney said. "Sneaky little devil."
Received on Fri 11 May 2007 07:05:25 PM PDT