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It Fell Out of the Sky
A story sent to me as a comment on meteorwrong number 101"Many years ago a friend and his buddies, who were michievous lads in a rural area, found an old yoke from a lawnmower. Pondering what to do with such a find, he came up with the idea of making a giant slingshot. They found some truly huge rubber bands and collected a stash of appropriate sized stones, and they managed to rig up the device in an abandoned field outside town. They disported themselves on a fine morning by launching their missiles idly into the air until they became bored, then wandered off in search of fresh amusement. The next day, there was a story in the local paper about a mysterious hail of rocks from the sky. No one was hurt, but several cars suffered some damage."
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From the Peoria Journal StarRock That Smashed Window Likely from Recycling CenterFriday, April 6, 2007 BY: Fitzgerald M. Doubet BLOOMINGTON - The alleged meteorite that crashed through a Bloomington couple's home last month now appears to have a more earthly origin. Robert "Skip" Nelson, a professor of geology at Illinois State University, along with his colleagues, originally believed the metallic rock that landed March 5 in David and Dee Riddle's home at 25 Partner Place to be a meteorite. Upon further examination, his theory has changed. "It appears that it was a piece of metal, steel actually, that had been embedded in a log probably as a growing tree," Nelson said. "The log was put into a wood chipper, an industrial wood chipper. Inside the chipper the hammers were revolving at a significant velocity, and when they hit this piece of metal in there, it kicked it out the top of the chipper with a velocity in excess of 200 miles an hour." Nelson believes the piece of steel - about the size and shape of a deck of cards - inadvertently wound up in the wood chipper at Twin City Wood Recycling on Oakland Avenue. "They found that it came crashing through the house, and traveling that velocity, the first thought was that it was a meteor," Nelson said. "It was coming down at a 60 degree angle. When it was shot out, or ejected from the chipper, it traveled over 300 meters, more than 900 feet, two city blocks. It was really moving and had a trajectory like you fired it out of a mortar." John Wollrab, owner of Twin City Wood Recycling, said foreign objects making their way through the chipper is not common. "It happens from time to time, but we try to prevent that," Wollrab said. The Riddles plan to keep the shiny black piece of steel around as a memento of their experience. "It was fun. I'm a little disappointed, though," Dee Riddle said. "It would have been a lot more fun if it had been even something from outer space, maybe not even a meteorite. We have had fun with it, and we will keep it just as a conversation piece."
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From the Asbury Park PressTests Show Object Isn't MeteoriteSaturday, May 12, 2007 BY:Joseph Sapia FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - The flying object that came crashing through the roof of a township house in January was not a meteorite, as initially thought. Not to worry. It appears man-made, not space invader-made, according to recent testing, information about which was released Friday. "Basically, it's a piece of stainless steel," said Jeremy Delaney, a Rutgers University meteoriticist who became involved in analyzing the item Jan. 3, the day after it fell and when the homeowner notified township police. The rock-like item was silver and brown, lumpy but smooth. It was about 2-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches, weighing about 13 ounces. Because the object had no specific distinguishing characteristics, "we can't take it much further" to identify its source, Delaney said. Although it remains an unidentified flying object, Delaney speculated it was "space junk," or spacecraft debris. Srinivasan Nageswaran, whose family discovered the silver object after it crashed through the roof and into the upstairs bathroom of his home, was disappointed by the news. "That's the nature of science," the 46-year-old information technology consultant said Friday. "If the conclusion from the test says it's not a meteorite, then it's not a meteorite. We have to move forward. "It's still the world's most popular metallic object that fell from the sky," Nageswaran said. Debris falls daily. About 11,000 items of space debris larger than about 4 inches are known to exist, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. All told, according to NASA, tens of millions of space debris items probably exist. Over the last 40 years, an average of one piece per day of known space debris has fallen to Earth, with no serious injuries or significant damage to property confirmed, according to the space agency. "Space junk is kind of a default answer," Delaney said, explaining conventional aircraft would be eliminated as a source because the Federal Aviation Administration reported none in the area at the time of the crash. Peter Elliott, a Colts Neck metallurgist involved in an early analysis of the object - and who thought it was a meteorite - suspected space debris when told of the test results. The item seems to have come from space because of a triangle-like pattern, suggesting heat, Elliott said. An item falling from a conventional aircraft at a lower altitude would not have had the heat pattern, Elliott said. About a week and a half ago, scientists viewed the item under a new, advanced electron microscope at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, then immediately analyzed the results, Delaney said. By the end of that day, the scientists from the museum and Rutgers concluded it was not a meteorite, Delaney said. The item had chromium, a typical component of stainless steel, Delaney said. A meteorite would have been basically nickel and iron, Delaney said. "This particular composition is not one we've ever seen (happening naturally)," Delaney said. The delay in testing the item was a combination of arranging schedules of the Nageswaran family and those of scientists, as well as the availability of the microscope, Delaney said. "It's a new tool and it's very much in demand," Delaney said of the microscope. On Jan. 2, the item crashed into the family's home in the Colts Pride development along Route 537. It went through the roof, then into a second-floor bathroom, where it bounced off a tile floor and embedded into the wall, according to township police. Early on, there seemed a sureness the object was a meteorite. Its shape, density, color and magnetism suggested meteorite, according to Rutgers. Household stainless steel generally is nonmagnetic, Elliott said. But stainless steel does come in magnetic forms, Elliott said. "There was a sureness in the evidence that was available - the physical evidence," Delaney said. "But we wanted to test it more thoroughly." Delaney said he was unaware of any continued analysis now that the item is determined not to be a meteorite. "I was pretty comfortable from right when I first saw it (that it was a meteorite)," said Elliott, who was not involved in the recent testing. " I wonder how many of the past ones (believed to be meteorites) were fully analyzed." On Jan. 27, the Rutgers University Geology Museum displayed the object as a meteorite at its open house. "Oh, well, you win some, you lose some," said Delaney, speaking of the display. "Now, we are in the position of saying, "Oops.' " The public, now, has a glimpse of how scientific analysis works, Delaney said. "New experimental evidence routinely causes scientists to change earlier hypotheses that were based on the best information available at that time," Delaney said. After the object crashed through the roof, various people reported objects falling from the sky. Delaney viewed up to 50 objects, with all turning out to be a "meteorwrong" - not a meteorite. Of the 50, only one falling in the "same general area" on possibly the same day might be related debris, Delaney said. No more information was immediately available on the other object. Aircraft debris would have fallen at the same time, while orbiting debris could have fallen over hours, Delaney said. Had it been a meteorite, within the context of it crashing through a house, "it was probably worth several thousand dollars," Delaney said. And, now that it is likely man-made debris? "Zero, regrettably," Delaney said.
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