Comments on: Illinois meteoritewrong?

By: Steve Raine

Steve Raine — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:12:25 +0000

Did ABR saysomething about an accomplice in the woodchipper … OUCH!

Not to mention … mess-ssy!
Plus, umm .. Phil .. don’t you write for ‘Astronomy’ magazine sometimes? Not sure why you’d knock them then … Okay they’re not the ‘Washington Post’ but then I don’t think there’ that kind of magazine /newspaper … More artic les and science essays & news releases than investigative journalism and fast-breaking news.

Personally, I prefer ‘Sky & Space’ but then considering *I* write for them I’m biased there! Not that my writing for ‘em should put anyone off I hasten to add - I’m all astronomy in that and no politics folks!

By: drbuzz0

drbuzz0 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:06:33 +0000

You know… this is way too good a story to let the facts get in the way of. If I had a meteorite hit my house…. but then turn out to not be a meteorite and not very interesting…. I think I’d hold onto the story. And also pick up a real one on ebay to pass off.

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:52:58 +0000

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5264
I love the “Anybody know a good lawyer?” bit. Hey, my uncle’s a lawyer in that part of the world. Hmm. At least we can all agree that it was a UFO…

By: drbuzz0

drbuzz0 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:10:40 +0000

I really hope that with the aid of x-ray florescence, neutron activation, electron scatter, electron spin resonance, microscopic analysis, ultrasonic imaging, ion counting, mass spectrography, polarized light imaging, laser spectroscopy and all sorts of other expensive tests we may finally be able to put the whole chunk of steal/meteorite mystery to rest. Or at the very least… have some idea which is the more likely candidate.

By: Quiet Desperation

Quiet Desperation — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 08:29:34 +0000

>>>it may have been a chunk of steel from a wood chipper.

Wow.

How did a chunk of steel from a wood chipper get out into space?

…

(crickets)

I’ll go now.

By: Irishman

Irishman — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:23:25 +0000

From prior pictures it looked about the size of a deck of cards.

If the chipper pitched it mostly straight up (say around 80 degrees), it would have a fairly steep reentry angle. Not sure how high a wood chipper can through a card-deck-sized chunk of steel.

A Phil, what do you mean you want to see the explanation? Their saying so isn’t justification enough?

By: PrimeMover

PrimeMover — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 04:51:54 +0000

OK I’m having a hard time getting a sense of size on this “meterorwrong” Are there any pictures with it next to a rule for scale. How much does this thing weigh?? The damage it did to the computer desk looks fairly small. I guess the point I’m trying to get too is how hard would the wood chipper have to have to still throw it 300 meters & still have it come into the house at a “steep” angle. 300 meters is quite a distance to throw a chunk of metal. I wish I could hit an aerodynamic light golf ball that far.