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Chance to buy a piece of the cosmos
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10:14am Tuesday 15th July 2008
By Staff reporter »
VISITORS to Seacombe Spaceport have a chance to hold a piece of the cosmos in the palm of their hands.
The meteorites, which have just gone on sale, are millions of years old and crashed landed in some of the Earth’s most remote locations.
"It’s not often people get the chance to hold a nugget of space. Now they can own one."
Ken Moss, Spaceport manager, said: “It’s not often people get the chance to hold a nugget of space. Now they can own one. Some of these meteorites are billions of years old – as old as the formation of the planets! “We’ve been working very closely with a guy called David Bryant, one of the largest importers of meteorites in the UK to bring these to Merseyside.
“We want to bring people of all ages closer to space and what better way than giving them the chance to touch a piece of They include fragments from the Sikhote-Alin meteorite, which exploded above Vladivostok in eastern Siberia back in February. 1947.
The nickel-iron material once formed the core of a small planet.
Solar-powered asteroids make their own moons
Most asteroids with moonlets started off as solitary bodies that split in two while sunbathing, new computer simulations suggest.
Once thought to be rare, dozens of binary asteroid systems – kilometre-sized rocks orbited by small moonlets – have been found in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter since the first asteroid pair was spotted by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993. And 15% of all near-Earth asteroids, which cross Earth's orbit, boast satellites.
Various theories have been proposed to explain how they formed. One suggests the pairs were created by collisions between older asteroids, but because of the huge distances between objects in space, such impacts are very rare.
Collisions may account for some large pairs of asteroids in the main belt, where asteroids orbit for billions of years, but the smaller near-Earth asteroids are much more likely to crash into the Sun or one of the inner planets before colliding with each other.
Source Of The Most Common Meteorites Discovered
ScienceDaily (July 10, 2008) — When observing with the GEMINI telescopes, two astronomers from Brazil and the United States discovered for the first time asteroids that are similar to “ordinary chondrites”, the most common meteorites found on Earth. Until now, astronomers have failed to identify their asteroidal sources because of the various geologic processes that occur after the meteorites are ejected from their asteroidal parent body.
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the first discovery by T. Mothé-Diniz (Brazil) and D. Nesvorný (USA) of asteroids with a spectrum similar to that of ordinary chondrites, the meteoritic material that most resembles the composition of our Sun. Most of the meteorites that we collect on Earth come from the main belt of asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter [1]. They were ejected from their asteroidal “parent body” after a collision, were injected into a new orbit, and they finally felt onto the Earth. Meteorites are a major tool for knowing the history of the solar system because their composition is a record of past geologic processes that occurred while they were still incorporated in the parent asteroid.
NASA Finds New Type Of Comet Dust Mineral
NASA Finds New Type Of Comet Dust Mineral
ScienceDaily (Jun. 17, 2008) — NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan have found a new mineral in material that likely came from a comet.
The mineral, a manganese silicide named Brownleeite, was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The comet originally was discovered in 1902 and reappears every 5 years. The team that made the discovery is headed by Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, a space scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"When I saw this mineral for the first time, I immediately knew this was something no one had seen before," said Nakamura-Messenger. "But it took several more months to obtain conclusive data because these mineral grains were only 1/10,000 of an inch in size."
A new method of collecting IDPs was suggested by Scott Messenger, another Johnson space scientist. He predicted comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup was a source of dust grains that could be captured in Earth's stratosphere at a specific time of the year.
NWA's Second Class Meteorites?
"I ran across this article this morning. I do realize that it was written in 2003 but it does make one wonder as to the status of meteorites that come from the North West Africa region. Also, on a personal note, I do own a few unclassified and classified NWA's. Anything that comes from our asteroid belt and our solar system is good enough for me."
Skaal!
Ben de la Vega
NWA's: Second Class Meteorites?
By Norbert Classen, May 2003
On the collector's market, the prices of most Northwest African meteorites are still dropping while witnessed falls and historic specimens are getting more expensive. Are NWA meteorites less valuable, or is it a subliminal form of chauvinism making some people treat them like second class meteorites?
The NWA Dilemma
STUDY: Life's Raw Matereal Came From Space
From SPACE.COM
Study: Life's Raw Material Came from Space
By Clara Moskowitz
Staff Writer
posted: 13 June 2008
03:55 pm ET
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. EDT.
We may all be aliens, it seems.
Some of the building blocks of life on Earth came from space, according to a new study of molecules in meteorite fragments.
The study confirmed that some of the raw material for DNA and RNA found in a meteorite did not contaminate the rock after it landed on Earth, but actually originated in space.
The materials in question are the molecules uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to the compounds that make up DNA and RNA, and are known as nucleobases.
"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations," said the study's lead author, Zita Martins, a researcher in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London.
Martins and her colleagues detailed their findings in the June 15 issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Tucson Gem and Meteorite Show - Walking in Tucson!
Great video of highlights of the 2008 Tucson Show by Ruben Garcia.
THANKS RUBEN!
Awesome Video!
How To Find Meteorites
So you’re looking for meteorites, or you want to learn how to find them huh? Well, hopefully this article will help you do just that. I’ve been hunting since August of 2007 and I have found lots of meteorites and added some very nice specimens to my collection. I’ve found literally hundreds of the little space rocks so far!
I was born and raised in the sticks and spent my entire childhood and early adult life stomping around the wilds of Florida so I know a thing or two about hunting, and the outdoors. My dad was a sergeant in the Army and he raised us like little soldiers. He always told my sister and I to “Always Be Prepared”. We spent so much time in the wilderness it was like a second home to us. We would go on hunting trips and survival trips like other people went to the movies. This was great training for meteorite hunting.
Meteorite Bake-Off
OK, everyone get ready for the worlds first Meteorite Bake-Off!
Featuring meteorite recipes from all across the world from world famous meteorite chefs.
Fun and exotic gourmet recipes like:
Meteorite Flambé
Broiled Lemon Pepper Pallasite
7 Pepper Siderite
Crispy Chondrite Crunch
Seasoned Sikhote Kebab
Spicy Canyon Diablo Fajitas
Campo Chowder with Chives
Filet Muonionalista
Gibeon Grog
Minced Millbillillie Brule
These and other fine recipes will be available soon. Stay tuned... If you know of any other wonderful meteorite recipes please add a comment and let us know.
Bon Appétit
MW
Welcome To The New And Improved MeteoriteWatch.com Website
I've made a few changes recently to the site. Hope you like them... ;)
Some of the features:
New - Upgraded Forum: All the features of a normal forum with just one user account. This allows you to post in the forum, and everywhere else on the site with 1 user ID and login
New - Dealers Forum: Dealers are welcome to post items for sale, trade, or wanted ads for meteorites and meteorite related equipment and goods.
New - Upgraded Photo Gallery: Members only galleries for all your meteorite images!
New - Members Only Photo Blog: Now you get your own blog. This is a feature I have wanted and people have requested on the site for some time now. Imagine that. Your own Meteorite Blog! Now that's cool!
New - Member Avatars: The new design and features allow you to add photo of yourself to all posts, comments, and blog entries, just like in the forums! Member avatars are used site wide and you can change you avatar at will or choose not to have one at all.
