Meteorite Hits Family SUV In Ontario - Canada

[Leon]

Meteorite Hits Family SUV In Ontario

Posted by admin in Provincial
(Sunday October 18, 2009 at 11:34 am)
Reference Source



In what was initially thought to be an act of vandalism, a police investigation has found that an SUV in Grimsby, Ontario, was in fact struck by a small fragment of a meteorite.

The vehicle’s owners, the Garchinski family, found that it’s windshield had been cracked and that the offending stone had damaged the hood and the garage door on it’s downward trajectory, and the residents initially assumed that it had been thrown by a vandal, prompting a call to police.

“I thought it was vandalism for sure,” Tony told a phalanx of reporters crowded onto the driveway of his Leawood Dr. home yesterday. “Who thinks a meteorite is going to crash-land on your car?”

However, the stone was very unusual in it’s immense density and odd coloring, prompting the Garchinskis to save it as a curiosity.

Several days after the car was damaged, Ms. Garchinski saw a news broadcast on a recent meteorite event in which a particularly large rock in space had entered the atmosphere over the Ontario sky and largely burned up, however local scientists still hoped to find small fragments of the rock in the Grimsby area. Ms. Ms. Garchinski noticed that the meteorites presented in the broadcast were very similar in appearance and physical properties to the rock which had struck her vehicle.

“They’re probably the oldest rocks that you or I or just about anyone else will ever hold,” said a grinning McCausland, carefully gripping black-coated space pebble in a gloved hand. “We’re talking 4.6 billion years old.”

This also helped to explain the large amount of damage done by the rock, which seemed to indicate that it was traveling much faster than anyone might be able to throw.

She called the University of Western Ontario, and just from the description of the rock the University felt that it was worth sending out an investigative team of researchers to inspect the stone and the damage it had caused.

The researchers had no difficulty determining that it was a meteorite, as it’s composition was unlike any rock on earth and extremely similar to known meteorites.

Because it landed on their property, the meteorite belongs to the Garchinskis, however they have lent it to the University of Western Ontario for several weeks to permit it to be studied.

It has already become one of the world’s most extensively studied meteorites, as scientists carefully pick and probe at it with the most advanced devices available, eager to gather as much data as possible while they still can.

The data gathered is so extensive that scientists have already narrowed down it’s most likely orbit.

The Garchinskis are unsure what they will do with the meteorite when it is returned, however, it’s small size (45g) indicates that it will only be worth a few hundred dollars if sold.


Reference Source

[Leon]

Second meteorite found near site of first space rock

October 17, 2009
Mark McNeil
The Hamilton Spectator
GRIMSBY (Oct 17, 2009)
Reference Source - Hamilton Spectator, Canada


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Scientists have discovered a second golf ball-sized meteorite in the western part of this town, and say there could be many more pieces of a Sept. 25 fireball lying around the area.

Yesterday, a media horde descended on a Leawood Drive home where a first meteorite smashed an SUV window, scratched the hood and dented a garage door.

Tony Garchinski, 30, told the media who gathered in his mom's driveway that he came upon the damage to her SUV on the morning of Sept. 26. He assumed it was vandalism. He called the police who took a report and he got the windshield fixed for $220.

Then 1 1/2 weeks later, his mother, Yvonne, heard news reports about the spectacular fireball that lit up the skies above Hamilton and how University of Western Ontario astronomers were trying to find pieces of it in Grimsby.

"I put two and two together and said: 'Oh my gosh, maybe this is what they are looking for.'"

Luckily, Tony kept the rocks he found on the driveway.

Yvonne e-mailed the UWO search team. They came out and were able to determine the black-encrusted rock, which had broken into five pieces, was a meteorite.

Given the timing of the car damage -- and the fact the Garchinskis heard a bang at around 9 p.m. the night before, the time of the fireball -- they are virtually certain it is a piece of the Sept. 25 fireball.

The discovery has meant UWO meteorite chasers were able to narrow their search. Originally, they were trying to cover a 12-square-kilometre area.

On Thursday a small search team came upon the second meteorite, near the neighbourhood where the first rock was found.

Phil McCausland, a post-doctoral fellow at Western's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration who is leading the search, said the landowner where the second meteorite was found wants anonymity. He would not give further details about the location.

The Garchinskis -- who by law own the first meteorite -- have agreed to lend it to UWO for three months so research can be finished.

After that they say they plan to place it in a safety deposit box until they decide what to do with it.

McCausland says it is impossible to say how much the meteorite would be worth. There are currently dozens of meteorites posted for sale on eBay for a few dollars to a few thousand dollars.

The notoriety of the Grimsby meteorite would likely bid up the price. But the type of meteorite is very common, McCausland said.

For now, though, the Garchinskis are simply in awe of the 46-gram, 4.6 billion-year-old rock. "It's pretty crazy. NASA goes all the way out there spending millions of dollars and we get (a meteorite) dropped off at the house," Tony said.

mmcneil@thespec.com

905-526-4687

Reference Source - Hamilton Spectator, Canada

[bakr124]

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[Farooq]

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