|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family
#17086495 - 10/23/12 03:54 PM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
The rock is nothing much to look at: 33 pounds and oval shaped. If you didn't know its history, you probably wouldn't be surprised that Donna Lewis's family used it as a doorstop, later parking it in the front garden.
It was even painted green for a time.
As it turned out, this was no ordinary rock. On Thursday, Donna and her husband George formally announced that the family rock picked out of a cow pasture in the 1930 is in fact a meteorite, Fox News reported.
Researchers from the University of Tennessee believe the ancient and very valuable rock came from a known meteorite strike that first turned up evidence in Tazewell, Tenn. in 1853.
According to Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies, a meteorite is a solid body from outer space that has fallen to the Earth's surface. The Lewis meteorite is classified as a "find" by the center, since it was not observed falling to earth but rather was recognized after the fact by its distinct features.
George Lewis first started to suspect his rock might be special after running a metal detector over it in May. To his surprise, the detector's dial registered "overload," reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.
After confirming the rock's other worldly pedigree, Eastern Kentucky University purchased it, for eventual display in the school's new Science's building.
EKU's Department of Physics and Astronomy Chairman, Jerry Cook, says the meteorite will be at the Kentucky Academy of Science annual conference on campus Friday and Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
"We're extremely lucky to find something like this," Cook said, according to an EKU press release, " and to find one locally is a real plus for us." The rock is estimated to be more than 4 and a half billion years old.
In addition to being extremely rare, meteorites of this size are also valuable. In an October auction, cosmic rocks for sale had price tags ranging from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Associated Press.
AP
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 3,060
Last seen: 10 years, 7 months
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: Diploid]
#17089006 - 10/23/12 09:38 PM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Pics?
|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: ChuangTzu]
#17089192 - 10/23/12 10:06 PM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: Diploid]
#17089217 - 10/23/12 10:10 PM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Here's a longer news story.
--
By Greg Kocher — gkocher1@herald-leader.com
RICHMOND — As a child, Donna Lewis remembered her grandfather using a 33-pound oblong rock as a doorstop by the front door.
Later, after her grandfather, Tilmon Brooks, died in the 1990s and the rock came into her possession, Lewis used it as an ornament in her flower bed near Pineville in Bell County.
Then one day in May her husband, George, ran a metal detector over it. The device's dial registered "overload."
Long story short, Lewis took the rock to universities where it was confirmed to be a meteorite, the remains of a meteor or "shooting star" that crashed into the earth.
On Thursday, the Lewis family formally announced that the meteorite found in a cow pasture near Tazewell, Tenn., in the 1930s is now the property of Eastern Kentucky University. It will eventually go on display in the new Sciences building.
Jerry Cook, chairman and professor in the EKU Department of Physics and Astronomy, was practically giddy at the new addition during a news conference.
"My precious," Cook said in a Gollum-like sigh of satisfaction as he cradled the rock in his hands.
"I'm glad it's come here where people can see it and kids can touch it," Lewis said.
Besides, she said, "What am I going to do with it? Throw it back in the flower garden?"
Lewis originally brought the rock to Cook in July. He suspected that it was a meteorite, but told Cook to take it to the University of Tennessee. There, a small tip of the rock was removed for analysis. The material was found to be high in nickel and iron, and strongly magnetic. And it was estimated to be more than 4 billion years old.
"To have something in your possession that's that old, it's just unreal," Lewis said.
UT scientists think the rock is part of a larger meteorite that was found near Tazewell in 1853. The UT people wanted to slice the rock for more tests, but Lewis wanted it kept intact.
"They were really nice and very helpful," Lewis said. "But, you know, Mr. Cook said they would keep it whole."
Cook said the rock has all the characteristics of a meteorite. It's pitted on the surface. Its surface has scorch marks where it burned in its rapid descent through earth's atmosphere.
"Nothing like this occurs in nature," Cook said. "We ran some very simple tests and determined that the density of this thing was around 7.5 grams per cubic centimeter. Nothing has a density like that."
EKU purchased the meteorite from the Lewis family, who asked that the financial terms not be disclosed. Cook said it will be insured as part of the university's larger insurance policy.
Cook said the meteorite will eventually be put on display.
"Part of our job is to get kids interested in science, and physics and astronomy in particular," Cook said. "If this can't do it, I don't know what will. It's really an awe-inspiring kind of thing."
The meteorite couldn't have arrived at a better time for EKU, said John Wade, dean of EKU's College of Arts and Sciences. Some 700 college professors and students will arrive on campus Friday for a meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science, a professional group that promotes scientific research. The visitors will be able to see the meteorite.
Bell County, where Lewis lives, has its own meteorite story to tell. Geologists say that Middlesboro was built in a four-mile-wide crater created when a meteor hit the earth millions of years ago.
The Bell County crater is among those acknowledged by the Planetary and Space Science Centre at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, which has compiled a list of all known meteor craters.
kentucky.com
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
tripp23
Kratom Freak



Registered: 05/21/08
Posts: 4,030
Loc: Florida, US
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: Diploid]
#17089859 - 10/24/12 12:19 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
its not fair 
why cant this happen to me 
-------------------- Experience my nightmarish first time of smoking Ganja!

|
5HTSynaptrip
Dopamine Enthusiast



Registered: 09/14/08
Posts: 4,360
Loc: USA
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: tripp23]
#17091124 - 10/24/12 09:01 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Holy shit... imagine something like that flying out of the sky and plowing through your house. The kinetic energy of something like that has to be pretty fucking devastating, despite it's smaller size.
--------------------
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - My hero, who will be forever remembered, Carl Sagan.
|
Vesey
Stranger



Registered: 06/05/09
Posts: 7
Loc: Taxes
Last seen: 11 years, 6 months
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: 5HTSynaptrip]
#17115535 - 10/28/12 01:22 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
5HTSynaptrip said: Holy shit... imagine something like that flying out of the sky and plowing through your house. The kinetic energy of something like that has to be pretty fucking devastating, despite it's smaller size.
Maybe you just haven't been looking at the right rocks!
-------------------- You can't put that there! But please. Put it.
|
5150
phantom

Registered: 09/01/06
Posts: 5,437
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
|
Re: 4 Billion Year Old, Extremely Valuable Meteorite Used As Doorstop By Tennessee Family [Re: Diploid]
#25517650 - 10/06/18 04:10 PM (5 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Has anyone ever found a meteorite on the shroomery ?
-------------------- "the way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death" Miyamoto Musashi
|
|