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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Kansas: 1400-lb Meteor Found

Buried only 7 feet below ground

:shock:

*Its discoverer stands to rake in over a million dollars for it, by his estimation.

Unique and rare in another way too:

The meteorite is classified as an oriented pallasite, a type noted for a conical shape with crystals embedded in iron-nickel alloy.  Only two larger ones of that type are known to have been found: a 3,100-pounder in Australia and a 1,500-pounder in Argentina.

Meteorites change shape as they enter the Earth's atmosphere.  An oriented meteorite, which is rare, maintains a stable flight rather than tumbling.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

flashgordon

Member

Registered: 2003-01-21

Posts: 314

Re: Kansas: 1400-lb Meteor Found

i'm surprised it didn't create a big hole in the ground; makes me wonder;

Dook

Banned

From: USA

Registered: 2004-01-09

Posts: 1,409

Re: Kansas: 1400-lb Meteor Found

I believe it was part of a larger asteroid that came apart after entry so it just buried itself.

reddragon

Banned

From: Earth

Registered: 2005-01-24

Posts: 193

Re: Kansas: 1400-lb Meteor Found

I believe it was part of a larger asteroid that came apart after entry so it just buried itself.

Why would being part of a larger asteroid make it less likely form a crater? It would still hit with a lot of force.

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Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

             -The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
              by Douglas Adams

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: Kansas: 1400-lb Meteor Found

Had a hard time picturing how large this was until I found...

Some other news links are also indicating that this is not the first from that specific area in Kansas. Local website. These space rocks or Meteors have been popping up everywhere in Western Kansas since the 1800's. It appears that there is such a thing as a professional metoer hunter.