Is it
a Meteorite?
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I smelled smoke as I was out walking in my
back yard on an early autumn morning. After a little investigation,
I discovered a smoldering pile of mulch. It was Wednesday Sept.
25, 2002 and it had been very dry with little rain for weeks and a fire
might easily spread.
I began to stomp the smoldering wood chips with
my feet. I was surprised as my feet sank into the pile. Although
there were very few ashes at the surface of the pile, it was apparent that
the smoldering had gone on for some time within the interior of the mulch
pile. There appeared to be a rather extensive subterranian fire...
If somebody had just thrown a cigarette butt onto
the wood chips then I would expect
the fire to spread along the surface of the pile. This reminded
me more of those old dumped tire fires that can burn underground for weeks.
The pile was still hot the next morning when I poured
a gallon of water on the area. After considering the possible causes
of the fire I ruled out campfire, lightning, volcano, and was not sure
about spontaneous combustion.
After puzzling over the possible causes for the
fire I returned to the pile on Saturday. I dug out the hot mulch
pile with a hoe, checking with the metal detector as I pulled the
ashes and wood chips towards the edges. The detector beeped.
I found a hot metallic rock about the size of a peanut. Could this
be a meteorite? Could other fires be the result of fire balls from
the skies?
Description
I decided to call my rock, Meteorite KC
902 because it was discovered in the Kansas City area in September
2002 (9/02). The real meteorite people might get a little upset
with some guy from Kansas deciding to name an unvalidated find but that
would be their problem...
I can howevever validate that it is a magnetic rock that is not readily
mistaken for the naturally occurring limestone, sandstone, slate, and shale
which are common in this part of the world. It does have magnetic
properties and it did pass the Nickel meteorite test with a kit I purchased
on E-Bay from mi-meteorite....
I took this picture with an Intel computer microscope.
It would seem to me to have one end that is a smoother bullet shaped
appearance mostly resembling the end of an arc welding rod
after being used. The rest has a rather crusty coating that might
be called 'fusion crust'. Is it possible that this is an 'oriented'
meteorite wheras you can determine it's leading edge as it nearly burnt
up in the atmosphere?
I also took some pictures which will give you an
idea of how big this rock is...
With a weight about 4 grams (the total weight of 2 dimes) KC 902 is
shown here with the domed, bullet shaped end facing the camera next to a
centimeter ruler and some coins.
4 grams, magnetic, ovoid shaped, smooth metallic end and crusty
black end
Magnetic properties
This rock has enough Iron in it to be attracted by magnets. As
with most normal magnets there should be a north and south pole... I
took some pictures with a compass that I thought might be of interest
an might spark further discussion...
The bullet shaped end attracted the North pole of my Boy Scout compass
needle.
The other end was attracted to the South end
of the compass needle.. So, you are you asking , "What's the point?"
Is it possible to estimate the trajectory of a falling
meteorite based on it's magnetic orientation if you find an oriented meteorite?
Could the trajectory of a magnetic rock falling to earth
be related to it's magnetic orientation? If you threw a magnetic
compass needle off the top of a building what do you think the chances that
it would land pointing North?
I think I heard somewhere that when you super heat
a piece of Iron to it's melting point that it would lose it's magnetic properties
while it is in a semi molten state. So would such a fireball regain
it's magnetic orientation from the Earth's magnetic field as it falls to
Earth giving clue to it's trajectory?
I do not know if the Federal Aviation Administration or some other areonautical
sky watchers might have recorded a meteor trail in the vicinity of Mission,
KS (39° 02' 20"N 94° 40' 00" W) on September 23-25?, 2002?
I put these points up for general discussion...
Ready aim Fire..
After reading several books, there could be doubt
that such a small meteorite could actually start a fire upon impact? I
understand a large number of small meteorites impact the Earth daily.
I hear that many are not 'hot' when they impact the earth...
Kansas City is located near the great plains. When
I drive around town and thru the nearby countryside there are fields,
and large areas of wooded lands. It was not always that way,, hard
to believe... this used to be part of a vast prairie, a sea of grasslands,
with only a few trees surviving near creeks and rivers. Due to frequent
grass fires before civilization with roads and plowed fields, fires
that could burn for weeks in dry summer weather.
I had always heard that these fires were caused
by lightening strikes? I always wondered about that because I somehow
associated lightening with thunder storms and rain. If a meteorite
could ignite a pile of dry woodchips perhaps they could also be responisble
for other common wild fires. This would be of interesting point of
discussion?
This is a small chip of the crusty stuff at (60x) higher
magnification. It does show some rather sharp and jagged edges.
I didn't know if you had ever seen anything like it?
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Meteorite KC902
E-mail NewsLetter
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Is it?
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Dateline
Mission, KS
This is to inform you the status of rock known as Meteorite KC902....
New physical analysis determines the little known truth...
Can the trajectory of a falling rock be determined by its magnetic orientation....
Real condrules or Kryptonite inclusions possible...
Particle beam studies reveal dark matter content ...
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R. Shofstall directly....
Or send inquiries to:
Nite Owl Productions
Meteorology Dept # 
5734 Lamar, Mission, KS 66202
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