Site Introduction in slide-2: Our Earth provides an atmosphere and home for animals and plants unlike any other planet we know of. Earth does this as a member of our Solar System that we share with diverse bodies of mass including a star, other planets, many moons, comets, asteroids and countless meteorites. Meteorites are crumbs of asteroids and comets that come to stay with us here on Earth. This is celestial, a site that presents meteorites through profiles, pictures, graphs, maps and a globe.
Profile on Willamette Meteorite - This is the Willamette Meteorite, it was discovered in Oregon and remains the largest meteorite found in the North American continent. It was discovered in modern times by the settler Ellis Hughes in 1902. Hughes did not own the land but knew it was an important find so he secretly moved the 14,000 kg meteorite to his own land over the next 90 days. His It has religious significance to the Grand Ronde Native American Tribes of that region, they call it Tomanowos. The Willamette Meteorite has a distinct spongy appearance because its time on earth caused chemical reactions to produce acid that wore away parts of the original mass. Both of these featured picutres were taken in the American Museum of Natural History. The picture with the boys was taken in 1910; the meteorite is still in the Museum, but we can't sit in it anymore.
image -
http://offbeatoregon.com/Images/H1001c-willamette-meteorite/meteorite-1910-boys-1200.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Willamette_meteorite_AMNH.jpg http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA572&dq=&cd=1&id=2QwLAAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false ^ this is the court record of Hughes losing his lawsuit, it would be really cool to screenshot this material as an image if we have space
Profile on Hoba Meteorite - This is the Hoba Meteorite, the largest meteorite known on Earth and it was scientifically discovered in 1920. It is also the most massive naturally ocurring piece of iron (Fe) on the surface of the Earth. As the graph here shows the Hoba is 84% iron with a mass of 60 metric tons - 50 tons of iron. You may also notice the flatness of the object as well. Scientists theorize the Hoba meteorite skipped across our Earth's airspace like a flat stone over water since air is also a fluid and remained in one piece. The atmosphere could provide enough resistance to even an object this massive at its outer edge. This picture is of German geologists surveying the Hoba Meteorite in 1929.
images - http://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/africa/hoba3.jpg
c3 graph on its mineral content since it is so heavy in iron (Fe)
Profile on Cape York Meteorite- This is a piece of the Cape York Meteorite, a collection of parts known to the Inuit community in several distinct parts including the Tent, the Man, the Woman and the Dog in their native language. It was discovered scientifically in 1818, but like many of the meteorites we profile it probably fell to Earth more than 10,000 years ago. On our time slide the Cape York Meteorite impact is featured in 1818, look how far north it was first documented. The picture featured here is of the largest piece, the Tent, or Ahnighito traditionally. There is also a map showing the several locations of meteorite fragments as it split apart when it entered our atmosphere.
images - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite#/media/File:Ahnighito_AMNH,_34_tons_meteorite.jpg
lets try to do a google map small window AS AN IMAGE or SCREENSHOT of all the fragments of this meteorite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite (specimen section) http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/earth-and-planetary-sciences-halls/arthur-ross-hall-of-meteorites/meteorites/fragments-of-cape-york has some guidance on this
Profile on Sikhote-Alin Meteorite- This meteorite landed in Russia relatively recently on February 12, 1947 at 10:38 AM. Its recent landing means we have many first hand accounts about the actual landing as well as the aftermath of the event. One of the most striking eyewitness descriptions say the bolide released in the event was brighter than our sun. The eyewitness accounts also said the sound could be heard for 300km and a 30km long pillar of smoke behind the objects was visible for hours after the fall. Scientists estimate as much as 100 metric tons of debris came into our atmosphere on that day, by the time it hit the Earth our NASA data say it had a mass of 23 metric tons. The black and white photograph featured here shows someone attempting to retrieve a large fragment of the meteorite using a truck. The artist P.I. Medvedev was sitting at his window during the meteorite strike, shown here is his painting of the thick pillar of smoke resulting from the fall.
images- http://www.catchafallingstar.com/Sikhotefall1.gif <- hopefully we can use a .gif file type http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhote-Alin_meteorite#/media/File:Sikhote-Alin_stamp_1957.jpg
Profile on Campo del Cielo Meteorite- This meteorite has a storied history of search and excavation. The meteorite was first documented by a Northern Argentina military in 1576 while in search for a source of iron. The Native community in the region said they found iron for their weapons in the Piguem Nonralta or Campo del Cielo (Field of Heaven) and claimed the mass fell from the sky. The military dismissed this claim and thought it was an iron mine. Several years later in 1783 another Spanish expedition led by Rubin de Celis discovered the mass of iron and thought again it was an iron mine. De Celis used explosives to excavate the "mine" only to discover the mass was a single object; he did however decide to send some samples to the Royal Society of London. In our graph you can see the modern estimated chemical composition of the meteorite compared to the theoretical composition of pure iron in Magnetite compounds on Earth. The Royal Society of London classified as a meteorite and the Native population was of course proven correct, the mass did come from the sky after all. Modern results of carbon-14 testing estimate the fall actually occured only 4,200 to 4,500 years ago. The total mass collected from the fall exceeds 100 metric tons with the largest single piece at 37 metric tons found in 1969 only 5 meters below the surface of the Campo del Cielo.
content- lets do another c3 donut chart of the composition of the meteorite- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_del_Cielo and another c3 on theoretical quality magnetite ore found on Earth - http://webmineral.com/data/Magnetite.shtml#.VTZzOa1VhHw
Profile on
meteorite locations: china - regional
done: north america - great story, regional greenland - great story, regional south africa - regional, physics russia - great story, regional south america - second biggest, regional