[meteorite-list] Fwd: NJO revisited

[Darryl Pitt]

Robert Matson thought I might wish to post the following to the  
list.   It's interesting.

Wishing everyone a terrific weekend.

All best / Darryl




> From: "Matson, Robert D." <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>

> Date: May 8, 2009 3:29:58 PM EDT

> To: "Darryl Pitt" <darryl at dof3.com>, "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com 

> >

> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>

> Subject: NJO revisited

>

>

>

> Hi Darryl (please feel free to forward to the list as I cannot from

> work):

>

>> I might also mention that Eric Twelker had expressed his doubts to  

>> the

> same

>> New York Times reporter with whom I had spoken, and he reached out to

> the

>> lead scientist and warned the object wasn't a meteorite, to which the

>> scientist at Rutgers tersely responded, "Get your facts straight."

>

> Dr. Delaney's defensive "get your facts straight" comment was actually

> directed at me. (Eric Twelker had forwarded my MetList post to him.)

> Here's

> the original source of that quote:

>

> ------ Forwarded Message

> From: "Jeremy S. Delaney"

> Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:17:17 -0500

> To: Eric Twelker <twelker at alaska.net>

> Subject: Re: New Jersey Meteorite/NYT article

>

> I suggest that your colleague get his facts right Yours sincerely  

> Jeremy

> S. Delaney

>

> Eric Twelker wrote:

>

>> Hello Jeremy

>>

>>   I am the meteorite dealer that Kareem Fahim was talking to

>> yesterday between conversations with you.  I think he explained my

>> concern on the origin of this piece--but I wanted to forward the  

>> email

>> below from Rob Matson to our Meteorite Mailing list.  Rob is a

>> respected scientist who is engaged in tracking and recovery of space

>> objects.  He expressed concern to me that the gamma ray spectrum  

>> should

>

>> be measured right away and that passage of time was critical.  You  

>> can

>> contact Rob here:  "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>

>>

>>   Eric Twelker

>>

>> Hi All,

>>

>> I was surprised that our local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles closed  

>> the

>> news last night (just before Jay Leno) with a 30-second blurb on the

>> mystery metal object from New Jersey. So I was finally able to see

>> high-definition video of the object being rotated, allowing a better

>> feel for the surface texture. It is a bit peanut-shaped, and  

>> certainly

>> larger than a golf ball which means its specific gravity is

>> correspondingly lower -- less than 7 I should think. The surface  

>> looked

>

>> melted in some spots (like viscous drips), but in other areas I  

>> thought

>

>> I could see glints from small, metallic crystal faces -- although not

>> unlike the octahedrite crystals one sees in the higher quality Nantan

>> pieces.

>>

>> If this had been a find rather than a fall, I'd be very encouraged by

>> its density and appearance. But as a fresh fall, it looks, well,

>> ~wrong~. Where is the crust of magnetite? How could it look the way  

>> it

>> does if it just screamed through our upper atmosphere at 8+ miles per

>> second?

>>

>> So my vote is that if it turns out to be a meteorite, foul play is

>> involved. Determining whether it is a meteorite or not should take

>> about 20 seconds by any regular member of this list examining the

>> specimen firsthand. If it ~is~ a meteorite, the next step would be to

>> check its gamma ray spectrum for evidence of short-lived,

>> cosmic-ray-induced radioactive isotopes in order to prove it was

>> recently in space.

>>

>> On a final note, by nature I'm suspicious of coincidences; given the

>> recent reentry of the Soyuz third stage booster over Wyoming/  

>> Colorado

>> the morning of January 4th, I thought it would be a good idea to  

>> check

>> that rocket body's ground track for the evening of January 2nd over  

>> New

>

>> Jersey! For example, there may have been pyro bolts or other  

>> deployment

>

>> hardware related to the launch that would have had different drag

>> coefficients, causing them to reenter earlier or later than the  

>> rocket

>> body. Great idea on paper; alas, there were no passes close to New

>> Jersey in the hours prior to 9pm on Tuesday night.

>>

>> --Rob





> Meteor's 4-billion-year space tour ends in N.J.

> 4 experts confirm finding in Freehold Twp.

> Saturday, January 06, 2007

> BY MARYANN SPOTO

> Star-Ledger Staff

> Upon further review, it came from outer space after all.

>

> The fist-sized hunk of rock that smashed through the roof of a  

> Freehold Township home earlier this week was declared a genuine  

> meteorite yesterday, making a bit of New Jersey history and solving  

> a riddle that had everyone from local police to the Federal Aviation  

> Administration hunting for answers.

>

> Three Rutgers University geologists and an independent scientist  

> determined the dense, kidney-shaped mass had been hurtling around  

> the universe for some 4.6 billion years before ending its galactic  

> journey Tuesday afternoon in a second-floor bathroom.

> "This little guy is a meteorite," said Jeremy Delaney, who examined  

> the object with Rutgers colleagues Gail Ashley and Claire Condie. An  

> independent metallurgist, Peter Elliott, reached the same conclusion.

>

> "This would be a class of meteorites almost as old as the oldest  

> things we know," Delaney said "This is true solar system material."

>

> While strikes by rock-like objects from space are not rare -- an  

> estimated 20 to 50 rocky objects from outside the Earth's atmosphere  

> pelt the planet daily -- most meteorites are not recovered, and New  

> Jersey had been in a long space-rock drought.

>

> The last documented strike took place in Deal on Aug. 15, 1829.

>

> Delaney, who's verified only three meteorites from among all the  

> objects brought to him in his 30-year career, said he's surprised  

> there haven't been more.

>

> "It amazes me a state this big, with this many people, hasn't had  

> more falls observed and more materials collected," he said. "Most  

> objects I've seen have been meteor-wrongs. This was a meteor-right."

>

> The grayish-brown chunk, given the rather lackluster nickname  

> "Freehold Township," hails from the asteroid belt, a rock-strewn  

> expanse between Mars and Jupiter. It's either the core of a very  

> tiny heavenly body or the fragment of a larger one that broke up  

> sometime over the eons.

>

>