My friend Kay Ferrari is a wonderful woman. She works at JPL, and she runs the all-volunteer Solar System Ambassador program, a great project which trains people to teach kids about astronomy. When I was at Sonoma State University we based our Educator Ambassador program on her work.
She was in NYC recently, and she knew about my call for photos of my first book. So she took this one, which almost literally rocks:
That’s the fantastic Willamette meteorite (yes, the one Stephen Colbert licked) at the Hayden Planetarium. It’s not rock, it’s iron and it weighs several tons. Yikes.
I spend a bit of ink in the book talking about asteroids and meteorites, so once again we have a very appropriate setting. Of course, my new book will deal with impacts in some gory detail, so we may have to do a reshoot at some point. That OK with you, Kay?
So, do you own a copy of the book? Take a picture of yourself holding it in some fun location, send it to me, and I’ll post it here!
February 16th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Phil, your link for “Take a picture of yourself holding it in some fun location, send it to me,” doesn’t work. You’re missing the .html after the http://www.badastronomy.com/info/contact part.
Shouldn’t it be http://www.badastronomy.com/info/contact.html ?
Otherwise, great shot. I just hope she didn’t set it where Colbert licked. Eww. Of course, if she set the book there before Colvert was there, you could say that – in effect – he licked your book!
February 16th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Great pic. I’d love to go there and see that wonderful chunk’a debris for myself.
Seeing as you mentioned it, it would be great if the “Solar System Ambassador” project was expanded to accept Outreach Educators outside the US. There are many of us out here, in the big wide world that exists beyond the US’s borders, who spend a lot of our freetime giving talks in schools and to community groups, running astronomy societies, writing for local papers and doing news reports on local radio and tv stations, i.e. doing all the things Ambassadors do, yet we can’t *be* Ambassadors. I hope we’re allowed to be soon.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I like Steven Colbert. He’s such an iconoclast. Licking an iron meteor does not seem so icky to me. Maybe he was just doing what every child does: using ALL his senses to appreciate his environment.
GAry 7
February 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
“[...] Which almost literally rocks.”
I love those puns, BA.
Will this book get edited and released in Argentina? I’m looking forward to read it.
February 16th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
“So she took this one, which almost literally rocks:”
I don’t think it rocks as much as it irons.
I was at the Hayden not quite two years ago. That meteorite is amazingly large. And of course, the collection inside the natural history museum kicks *##, and has some impressively-sized ones as well.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Just wondered, what was the size before it entered the atmosphere?
Or does iron not burn up?
Wow!
February 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I presume there’s a big sign somewhere saying “feel free to touch and handle the meteor, even though we put a fence around it.”
I mean, you’re not encouraging people to interfere with museum exhibits in your quest for book-aggrandizement?
February 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Need to get a picture of the book during The Great Race http://www.iditarod.com/
February 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Why yes Steve, that’s precisely what I’m trying to do!
In fact, I’m hoping someone will get a picture of it stapled to the Mona Lisa, or glued to the statue of David.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I happily agree that Kay Ferrari is a wonderful “Wonder-woman”! I have been part of the SSA/SSEP program since 2004. Kay has provided us with so many opportunities to share with my students the exciting science of so many NASA missions!
Thanks, Kay and BA too.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I just wanted to point out that you can see where a hundred years of greasy human hands has slowly polished the lower half of the meteorite. Hand sanitizer, anyone?
February 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Fun idea B.A. hehe. Velcroed to the Liberty Bell, spackled onto the sphinx, stuck on Stonehenge, tacked onto…. well, you already get the idea.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
repair kit for the next time some tiles fall off the shuttle?
riveted to ken ham’s head?
instruction manual for ice skating in hades?
kicked for a drop goal to win the six nations?
top of the nytimes best seller list?
baked, is not a good cookie. ;-(