Guest Articles

A few months back I was asked to help with an appraisal of a 14.6 pound stone meteorite that had been in a family’s collection since the mid-1950s. All I was given by way of provenance was a 1986 letter from Dr. Jim Schwade asking to buy a portion of the meteorite, and a photocopy of a 1970 Arizona State

Ever since I started collecting meteorites my interest in the history and stories surrounding the specimens has been a prime motivator for what I would add to my collection. As a result, I have made the acquisition of worshiped or otherwise supernaturally idealized meteorites a motivating factor for what I collect. It so happens that one of the most interesting

“Sikhote-Alin adventure in May 1995”, summarized for the Meteorite Times magazine I bought my first Sikhote-Alin collection sample, an explosion fragment (shrapnel) with some 270 g, from an US dealer in about 1987 or 1988 and a smooth individual sample from another source at about the same time. I was amazed to see that there were two fundamentally different types

Not that it matters, but the following story could be true They rode into town one dusty December day, fresh from the High Plains of western Colorado. Blaine was riding shotgun. Blake covered our flanks from the backseat of The Beast, a 4×4 Toyota Landcruiser. Between them they carried a fistful of dollars, and were giddy-up rough and ready to

The fall of the Murchison meteorite on September 28, 1969 in Victoria, Australia is perhaps one of the most serendipitous events in the history of science. (See photo 1) This single meteorite has revolutionized our understanding from the formation of the solar system to the origins of life on Earth. This information is contained in a single element namely carbon!

“Look! Brahmins and Chumars, bankers and tinkers, barbers and bunnias, pilgrims and potters – all the world going and coming. The Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India’s traffic for fifteen  hundred miles – such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world.” So proclaimed Rudyard Kipling of India’s main

A large fireball was witnessed on April 23, 2019 at 9:09 p.m. local time by residents in Costa Rica.   As the meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it broke apart and deposited meteorites centered upon the small town of Aguas Zarcas.   Early reports indicated that this meteorite belongs to a special group called carbonaceous chondrites which are typically rich in

“I at first doubted whether it was a true aerolite or not, in consequence of the colour being different from the one that fell in the Furreedpore District in 1850… but I find from Mr. Peppe, the Sub-Deputy Opium Agent, that there can be no doubt of its being a true aerolite, as he has seen two that fell in

June 1, 2018, is destined to be an unusual Children’s Day. My friends’ circle on WeChat is filled with pictures and jokes about pretending to be young and then begging for Children’s Day gifts. Nothing changed until 10 p.m. when a message came in. The message was sent by Tang Yao, a reporter from a Beijing local newspaper. She interviewed

Costa Rica’s Second Meteorite Un caso de pura birra. The summer Tuesday night skies were clear at 9:07, April 23, 2019, when the fireball flew above the crater of erupting Volcan Turrialba, captured on video by government cameras monitoring activity. Dash cams and security cameras around the country photographed the object as it exploded, dropping material. The fireball had a

I was directed in early May to someone wanting to acquiring a specimen of the Lafayette, Indiana Meteorite for teaching and study. He was thinking on a purchase of several grams. He pointed me to an article of how a couple of students, Phillip Cozariuc and Lauren Dilk had gather petitions for the return of some of the Lafayette Meteorite

Nicolle Zellner Department of Physics, Albion College, Albion, MI, USA 48842, nzellner@albion.edu The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded world-class telescopes and astronomical instruments in Chile for decades, and the discoveries that have been made have helped to reform our views of planetary formation, black hole dynamics, and solar system processes (to name just a few). But what about meteorites?

*ISAC Institute, CNR Research Area, via Gobetti 101, 40126 Bologna, Italy, g.cevolani@isac.cnr.it   www.facebook.com/cevolani45 CAIs or Calcium-Aluminum-rich inclusions, roughly millimeter-to-centimeter in size, are the oldest objects in the solar system, discovered in the most ancient meteorites. These inclusions are believed to have formed very early in the evolution of the solar system either as solid condensates or as molten droplets. Relatively to

Nicolle Zellner1 and Marci Howdyshell2 1* Department of Physics, Albion College, Albion, MI, USA 49224, nzellner@albion.edu 2 Department of Physics, Albion College, Albion, MI USA 49224, marci.howdyshell@gmail.com * To whom correspondence should be addressed Summary The Longstreet Meteorite, a showcase of Albion College’s rock collection for almost 70 years, has been investigated. Analyses of its exterior and of thin sections

On August 28, 2017, the meteorite world, Texas Christian University, his former students and his many friends celebrated the life of Dr. Arthur Ehlmann, a kind giant of a man, a man who called Texas Christian University home for 60 years. People from all walks of life, academics, business people, former students and others came to honor him and to