Rare Meteorite Found In Kansas Field

[FVZA_Colonel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061016/ap_on_sc/kansas_meteorite



Rare meteorite found in Kansas field
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer

GREENSBURG, Kan. - Scientists located a rare meteorite in a Kansas wheat field thanks to new ground-penetrating radar technology that someday might be used on Mars.

The dig Monday was likely the most documented excavation yet of a meteorite find, with researchers painstakingly using brushes and hand tools to preserve evidence of the impact trail and to date the event of the meteorite strike. Soil samples also were bagged and tagged and organic material preserved for dating purposes.

Even before they had the meteorite out of the ground, the scientific experts at the site were able to debunk prevailing wisdom that the spectacular Brenham meteorite fall occurred 20,000 years ago. Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts that date closer to 10,000 years ago.

"We know it is recent," said Carolyn Sumners, director of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as she surveyed progress on the dig. "Native Americans could have seen it."

[stevedeshazer]

1. Is that what's wrong with Kansas?

Maybe it's Kryptonite. Isn't that near Smallville?

Seriously and unsnarkily, that's a very intersting find.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Did it land anywhere near Smallville?

It could be Kryptonite!

[sakabatou]

3. Local preacher says it's just Jesus passing a stone

:evilgrin:

[Mabus]

4. They found a huge one there last year

iirc, the last one was around 1,400-1,500 pounds.

[IndianaGreen]

5. At a weight of 154 lbs, that's some space rock!

and it would have made quite a boom when it hit the earth.

[sofa king]

6. In Kansas, 10000 years ago was before the universe was created.

[PittPoliSci]

8. LOL

[Maestro]

9. Funny

I wonder how the Kansas fundies are taking to all the "satanic" scientists being in town. Actually, the more I think about it, they will probably say that this just proves that the Earth formed between 6 and 10 thousand years ago. :eyes:

[bananas]

15. God put the meteors there with the dinosaur bones

to fool the scientists.
It's in the bible.

[KansDem]

17. They might be happy they're there...

I wonder how the Kansas fundies are taking to all the "satanic" scientists being in town.

I've been to Greensburg. The infusion of half-a-dozen people or so could do wonders for the city's economy.

Greensburg, Kansas: home of the world's largest hand-dug well

[Maestro]

19. OMG! I need to see this now!

How exciting! A hand-dug well! :rofl:

[krispos42]

16. It was God's gallstone

Do you doubt Bible, which cleary states in Genesis, chapter one, verse zero, "Before the beginning of the first day, the Lord God dis arise from his slumber in divine pain, and did He massage his lower back with his knuckles until a diving gallstone did fall from his bladder."

I shall smite all unbelievers! :nuke:

[IndianaGreen]

7. The technology used to find this meterorite can be used on Mars

But few garnered as much attention as Essam Heggy, planetary scientist at the Johnson Space Center's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. It was his ground-penetrating technology that pinpointed the site and proved for the first time that the technology could be used to find objects buried deep in the ground and to make an accurate three-dimensional image of them.

"It validates the technique so we can use something similar to that instrument when we go to Mars," Reiff said.

Such GPR systems had been used in the past to locate smaller meteorites in Antarctica where ice allows easier penetration of the sonar. But until the Kansas dig, the technology had not been successfully used for ground detection in heavy soils, like what might be encountered in Mars, to find meteorites or water there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061016/ap_on_sc/kansas_meteorite

[bananas]

13. "to find meteorites or water"

just wanted to emphasize that.

[Joe Bacon]

10. Wow, is it Kryptonite?

Hmmm, is that why the Republicans are imploding now?

[VegasWolf]

11. Science is kryptonite for Republicans. Religion is their blanky. nt

[Canuckistanian]

12. You don't see many astronomers looking DOWN for discoveries

I wonder what drew them to that particular area?

[bananas]

14. The farmer's daughter

funnier people than me can add jokes here -->

[daleo]

18. Apparently it is only 7000 years old. n/t