Fist-size space rock crashed through roof of Lorton doctors' office

reply to post by YourPopRock

Is a magnet in my gutters really the best way to find meteorites in my area?

If you want fast results, yes.

By all means, if you have anything that resembles a desert or salt-pan near you - try searching for larger meteorites. The more featureless/flat and arid, the easier they will be to find, but chances are that people will have looked before you if you have any particularly featureless areas. The more vegetation there is, the harder it becomes to find anything obviously.

Most meteorite hunters (when they're not hunting in Antarctica) try to work out where a likely fall site would be using witness reports and and photographic or video footage (if either are available) when there is a big fireball. That's probably the best way.

You could also try previous fall sites to see if any meteorites have been missed, since finding them all when a meteoroid explodes at high altitude is virtually impossible (they can be scattered over a very large area)... but fresh meteorites are more prized since meteorites are usually quite fragile and damaged by the elements soon after they fall if they are not collected quickly.

There have been at least a couple of cases covered here on ATS where meteorites have been recovered, which you might find interesting to go through:
UFO - meteor like object with sonic boom above Dallas and Austin Texas!
Massive object crashes over Edmonton, Canada

And how would I know if I was looking at one?

You'd need a microscope to see any detail, but a good jewelers magnifier should be enough to identify them. If you follow back the links I posted, there are some photos. They will look more or less spherical.

reply to post by Box of Rain


Good post, although I don't agree with this part:

I suppose that could still kill a person, depending on what part of the body was struck, and also depending on whether the meteor was further slowed by a tree or a building roof. The German boy in the article may have even been hit by post-impact debris.

The boy claimed that the meteorite was still luminous and that it was hot when it came into contact with him, which we know it exceptionally unlikely to be true.

A small meteorite like that, as you correctly said, is slowed down extremely rapidly by our atmosphere. It then spends many minutes falling, at well below sub-sonic speed, and through freezing cold air. By the time it would have reached the ground, there is no way it could have felt warm, or been luminous.

To be luminous, an object need to be traveling at around 0.8 km/s (if I recall correctly), which is physically impossible for something that small.

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


Yeah -- I was giving the boy (and that story) the benefit of the doubt. There is a degree of "fishiness" to that story. The boy may still have been injured by the meteor, but perhaps not in the exact manner described.

However, that does not diminish the fact that a person can get struck by a meteoroid and live (and, yes, I realize you are not questioning this). There is a famous and well-documented account of a woman in Alabama in 1954 who was struck on the hip by a meteor that crashed through her roof:

Meteorite strikes Alabama woman

Originally posted by Box of Rain

Originally posted by cowboys703

Originally posted by timewalker
I used to live in New Orleans, and I remember this happening there also in 2003.

This one really blew me away last year.

German boy hit by meteorite - Lives to tell about it

That story is garbage. The meteorite hit him, and then smashed into the ground causing a 1 foot wide crater? And I can guarantee it wasnt traveling at 30,000 mph when it hit him.

It may have been traveling at 30,000 mph (or more) when it hit the atmosphere, but small to medium-sized meteors slow down considerably once they interact with our atmosphere (although the really big ones don't).

most meteors that make it to the ground are slowed down to their terminal velocity, which would be about 240 mph (384 kph).

I suppose that could still kill a person, depending on what part of the body was struck, and also depending on whether the meteor was further slowed by a tree or a building roof. The German boy in the article may have even been hit by post-impact debris.

Source Article - Meteoroid Terminal Velocity

Here's an excerpt:

Meteoroids start out at a sizzling 7 to 44 miles per second relative to Earth. Fortunately, if the meteoroid weighs less than 8 tons — and nearly all of them do — air friction robs it of ALL its original speed. At a height of about 10 miles or 50,000 feet, it slows to just 2 or 3 miles per second, where it no longer glows. Nonetheless this 7,000 mph velocity, 3 to 6 times faster than a bullet, gives a one-pound meteor enough kinetic energy to easily destroy a jetliner. It hasn’t yet happened, but it could.

Continuing downward, now dark and unobservable, the meteoroid’s encounter with increasingly thick air slows it to a terminal velocity of about 240 mph. This is its final speed as it strikes the ground. That’s the speed at which nearly all meteorites land, plus or minus 20%. That’s still plenty fast - usually enough to pierce a roof and end up on the floor of some room. Buildings are penetrated every year or two in North America alone. Just since 2002, meteors have entered seven homes including two in the United States.

If the meteoroid weighs over 100,000 tons, our atmosphere won’t slow it down in the slightest: It slams into the ground at full cosmic velocity. This isn’t good, as the dinosaurs learned 65 million years ago...

[edit on 1/28/2010 by Box of Rain]

I understand this, just commenting on how the news story made it seem like he was hit at 30,000 mph.

What are these things typically made of?

Would a metal detector be of any use in a search?

Originally posted by YourPopRock
What are these things typically made of?

Would a metal detector be of any use in a search?

About 86% of the meteorites that fall on Earth are chondrites,[4][15][16] which are named for the small, round particles they contain. These particles, or chondrules, are composed mostly of silicate minerals that appear to have been melted while they were free-floating objects in space. Certain types of chondrites also contain small amounts of organic matter, including amino acids, and presolar grains. Chondrites are typically about 4.55 billion years old and are thought to represent material from the asteroid belt that never formed into large bodies. Like comets, chondritic asteroids are some of the oldest and most primitive materials in the solar system. Chondrites are often considered to be "the building blocks of the planets".

en.wikipedia.org...

Wikipedia. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

reply to post by Box of Rain

Yeah -- I was giving the boy (and that story) the benefit of the doubt. There is a degree of "fishiness" to that story. The boy may still have been injured by the meteor, but perhaps not in the exact manner described.

It's not just that it's fishy. It's so highly improbable, he may as well just be claiming that the easter bunny attacked him (as one very knowledgeable person on the meteorite list put it). Having been a 14 year old at one time (albeit a few decades ago), I'm inlined to agree.

If it had been the real deal, we would have heard by now I think.

However, that does not diminish the fact that a person can get struck by a meteoroid and live (and, yes, I realize you are not questioning this). There is a famous and well-documented account of a woman in Alabama in 1954 who was struck on the hip by a meteor that crashed through her roof:

I remember the case, and I agree that it certainly is possible for this to happen to someone. I just very much doubt that it happened in the other case involving the boy. He lied about one part of the story for sure, and the other part is not too far off being improbable.

Read what Dr Marco Langbroek has to say about it here
.

These people know what they are talking about.

Originally posted by cowboys703
Wikipedia. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

True that a metal detector won't help that much...

You could look for months, perhaps even years and not find one... or you might get lucky and find something after a couple of hours. The bottom line is, you don't know till you try.

The other bottom line is, if there were an easy way to find meteorites, they would not be so expensive!

Fair enough...

I had always heard that many meteorites were high in iron content... that's why I thought a metal detector might help.

Plus, I might find buried Minnesota pirate treasure along the way! Arrrrrrrr!!!

Source: Meteorite Ownership In Debate

Well, this keeps getting more interesting by the day... (maybe I SHOULD look for meteorites! Those little buggers seem to be worth a LOT!)