Two quickies:
1) I mentioned last week that possible meteorites form the Texas fireball had been found, and it appears that’s now confirmed. In fact, they look like standard chrondrites, a typical type of meteorites associated with rocky asteroids. That gives me a lot more hope that more and bigger chunks of the rock will be found!
2) Two more reviews of my book have surfaced: one from American Freethought, and another from my friend Ottle The Man Version. In fact, ManOttle is a great writer, funny and incisive, and I highly recommend dropping his blog into your feed reader.
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Love the Google ad on the sidebar for this one… 2012-comet.com… “2012 Forum
2012 is an exciting year. We believe the Bible Codes are real and have the ability to predict the future. …” LOL
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Thanks for the shout-out, Phil!
If any of you pop by, don’t worry — I’m not just going to talk about cancer and jury duty.
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Unless you are lucky enough to get there while it is still warm, how do you confirm that a rock you see on the ground came from a specific, observed meteor? I assume that meteorites are chemically distinctive from ordinary terrestrial rocks, but it seems to me like a big jump to say “this meteorite came from that fireball in the sky we saw the other day.” Who is to say a rock you find, even if it is proven to be a meteorite, hasn’t been sitting there in that spot on the ground for a thousand years already?
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
@Travis
If you look on the bottom of the rock, it will say, “Made in Outer Space.”
Really, its not that difficult to differentiate most meteorites from nearby terrestrial materials, especially if they’ve landed recently. They tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
Search Google Images for Meteorite. There are even photos of meteorites found on Mars:
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA07269
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I like you, Phil, tho I don’t know you well enough to know whether or not you can tell the difference between real science and not. I’ll try to track you for a bit and find out more. You might get a kick out of one of the sections on my website, http://foossolvesunified.com, specifically the Unified Field. I’m not an astronomer, but do believe that most physicists have lost their minds, hence my version of “real” science. My main comfort zone is a narrow blend of chemistry, biology and statistics, with emphasis on the latter. I’ve done a nice randomized block theorem there, too. Good luck and congrats on a good blog job….