Meteorite Reportedly Hits SUV in Ontario
When Tony Garchinski heard a loud crash on the night of September 25, 2009, he didn't think much of it. That is, until he awoke the next morning to find the windshield of his mom's Nissan Pathfinder with a huge crack in it. Garchinski chalked up the incident to vandalism and filed a police report. According to University of Western Ontario scientists, what hit the SUV was a golf ball sized fragment of a freshly fallen 4.6 billion years old meteorite, which had been captured on video as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.
Comments:
The article does not address 2 key points:<br><br>1. the name of the meteorite, and;<br><br>2. the estimated value.<br><br>Could be a chunk of Canadian change.<br><br>
About the missing points:<br><br>1) It will not have a name for some time. Usually, meteorites are named for the location where they're found. This one might be named to associate with the wider fall area. But it won't be official for quite a while.<br><br>2) Value can't really be determined until the meteorite has been analyzed and typed. However, what we can say at this point is that it's likely to be at least as valuable (per gram) as those from Chicago a few years back (witnessed fall) and possibly upwards to the more-famous Peekskill "car impactor". It should in any case be quite valuable on the open market.<br><br>However, good for the owner to loan it to the researchers. If it's completely fusion-crusted, not cracked open, then it's of inestimable value to the researcher because it's unlikely to be much contaminated (yet). This preserves extra information once the interior is assessed.<br><br>And, if it's a rare type, the researchers will likely preserve most of it. Perhaps the owner will keep half of it as an "investment" ... I dunno.<br><br>Super-duper, though, that it was recovered. <br><br>I hope the owner didn't throw out any pieces of the windshield: some from Chicago have sold quite well on eBay, for example. It's totally weird how much people will pay for that sort of thing.
Why couldn't it have been my Passat in Oneida?
I was out observing with an astrobud on his property near Bowmanville Ontario and witnessed the meteor. It was the longest, brightest I had seen in sometime! When I later mentioned seeing it to friends I was surprised by how many people I know actually saw it as well. Many folks I know never saw Hale-Bopp and it was visible for months!
This is one amazing story. I live few hundred miles south of this with my eyes glued to night sky whenever possible. I have witnessed many such fireballs over the years but can only dream of actually finding a remnant attesting to such event. Thanks to Guy for posting this. Would have never heard about this from my local.or national newsteam.
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