From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: meteorite question
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 00:00:40 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: <ronkean at juno.com>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 11:23 PM
Subject: [WSFA] meteorite question

>
> Every so often, a news item appears concerning a meteorite.  This one is
> unusual in that it reports that experts advise that a freshly fallen
> meteorite should be dried out in an oven.  Why?  If a meteorite contains
> water, I would think it would be more valuable for scientific study with
> the water, than without.

I find it astonishing that any meteorite's flaming trip through our
atmosphere would leave it *needing* to be dried out in an oven.

--Ted White

>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
> http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/408918
>
> Grapefruit-Sized Meteorite Smashes Through NZ Home
>
> Jun 13, 1:17 AM (ET)
>
> WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the
> roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling
> before coming to rest under a computer.
> The 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) chunk of space debris dropped out of the sky and
> plummeted through the tiled roof of the Auckland home Saturday.
> "I was in the kitchen doing breakfast and there was this almighty
> explosion," owner Brenda Archer told the Sunday Star-Times newspaper.
> "It was like a bomb had gone off. I couldn't see anything, there was just
> dust."
> Archer's one-year-old grandson had been playing nearby minutes before it
> hit.
> It is only the ninth meteorite found in New Zealand and the first to hit
> a home.
> The Archers, who are following expert advice by drying the rock out in
> their oven, plan to sell it or give it to a museum.
> Experts believe the meteorite, a chunk of an asteroid, could be worth
> more than NZ$10,000 ($6,290), the newspaper said.
>
> ________________________________________________________________
>