What to do if you think that you’ve found a meteorite
geoscience.unlv.edu
geoscience.unlv.edu
Similarly, while people believe (small) meteorites would be hot upon landing, actually they are usually cold, from going relatively slowly through upper cold atmosphere. So if it’s red hot, it’s probably your neighbour’s barbecue they threw over the fence.
One night laying there, out of the blue, I heard something hit the gravel path that was next to where I was laying. I searched the area where I figured the thing had fallen, but of course I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. There was no light, no sound and no trees from which something could have fallen. I was convinced it was a fragment of a meteorite, but seeing this chart I can only flow this childhood conviction out of existence.
Coming to realize, it was most likely just my dad playing tricks on me. Either way, it still makes me feel warm inside thinking about that moment.
Because people statistically never see it fall (and so are lying or mistaken?) or is there a different source of airborne rocky things?
A 10cm diameter iron meteorite has a terminal velocity of about 600kph / 400mph / 160m/s. And remember it’s not glowing or red hot or followed by a plume of smoke, so you just won’t see it.
So if “someone saw it” it’s either something else, or they are making it up.
https://www.insider.com/alabama-woman-first-person-hit-by-a-...
If that's not the case can anyone please elaborate on that box?
ETA: There was probably an earlier version of that chart without that question, that resulted in everyone thinking "But I saw it fall- the chart must be wrong. Surely the scientists would care about that fact! I'll call them."
Edit: there's also this, which explains some of the flow chart's amusing behavior,
https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/meteors/
> Meteors stop incandescing (the light goes out) tens of kilometers above the Earth’s surface. It takes a few minutes for any surviving fragments to fall to the ground during the “dark flight.” They keep moving in same same general direction, but their fall becomes more vertical and is subject to wind speed and direction. The fragments land at terminal velocity, about 100-200 m/s. Meteorites are not glowing when they hit the ground and they are not hot. Also, meteorites are much smaller than most people think they are, typically a few centimeters in size. This all means that the meteorite fragments land far from where you last saw the meteor and there is no way that observers at a single point on the Earth’s surface are going to find fragments of the meteorite.
> Since 1900, the numbers of recognized meteorite “falls” is about 690 for the whole Earth. That’s 6.3 per year. Only 98 of those occurred in the US. That’s less than 1 per year. Even when a meteorite is observed to fall, experienced meteorite hunters may find only a few stones when hunting dawn to dusk for a week.
1: https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-r...
Edit: Downvote me if you like, but even OPs article admits as much: "Please note that any unsolicited specimen sent to UNLV or our department will not be returned." What I say is well known in the geology hobby. There are only a handful of people who have a good reputation for verifying and returning meteorites. At the very least, do your research and try to find somebody with such a reputation first.
This whole chart is basically a way of them saying "stop sending us shit," which isn't in line with a malicious "please send us everything so we can keep the good stuff" motive.
Even their advice if the flowchart says its interesting is to send pictures next, not send it in.
My own behavior, if I sent pictures and they said "yes, that might be a meteorite" would be to arrange to bring it in in person, sometime.
Mailing it blindly doesn't seem like it should be anyone's first instinct, but they certainly aren't saying anyone should do that.
> Mailing it blindly doesn't seem like it should be anyone's first instinct,
Mailing it blindly? If you first contacted a university researcher asking about a rock and they said "sure send it to me and I'll check it out", and then kept your rock without telling you upfront they would keep it, you would be in good company. A whole lot of people have lost neat artifacts like this. Not just meteorites of course; crystals, fossils, archeological finds. Basically anything you think a scientist might find interesting, the scientist will keep for themselves for the same reason.
Step 1: Tell nobody. Step 2: Hire an attorney. etc.
> Think of it this way: If you see it driving down the freeway and it has 4 wheels, 2 headlights, and a trunk, it is probably an automobile, not an alien spacecraft.
https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-r...
I wonder just how many times he's been contacted about meteorwrongs to write that flowchart.
Like, people can snap a photo of a rock, and it uses (whatever) to make an initial assessment, asking the user whatever further information might help, then sending off snaps/panning-video of interesting rocks.
From what I remember it's actually not that hard to find, but maybe I should read it first. Anyone that has can elaborate?