“that book also tells that a meteorite fall in Europe set fire to a stable.”

In those olden days, oil lamps were the main form of lighting, so a rock landing in the vicinity of such could easily start a fire w/o the rock being the least bit warm. I believe the Great Chicago Fire was started by a very cold cow and an oil lamp.

Gary 7

Indeed they were. But it took parts of the scientific establishment a long time to admit it. John S. Lewis’s Rain of Iron and Ice goes into this in detail. The history of Arizona’s Meteor Crater is one example. IIRC, that book also tells that a meteorite fall in Europe set fire to a stable.

Thanks for that explanation.

I knew my original thought was wrong — that it was a cube of trinitrotoluene.

Three. It’s a cube, after all.

1. No. Not only will it not be hot, it may even be cold. There is at least one reported fall, found at the moment of the fall, where frost formed on the broken surface of the stone. Meteorite interiors are the temperature of space at the distance of Earth orbit when they land.

1a. See above.

2. I guess it depends on the policy.

3. Yes.

4. Tens of dollars per gram.

5. Not sure about exact average number. More than a couple, less than 50, I’d say.

1) Apart from the damage to the roof, is the meteorite also hot enough maybe not cause fire damage, but heat damage inside the home?

1a) If I came across something like that 5 minutes after it landed, would it still be too hot to handle?

2) Is damage like that covered under normal house insurance?

3) Who owns the meteorite? The homeowner?

4) What would something like that rock be worth if it was sold?

5) How many rocks that size touch the ground *and* are recovered every year?

Thanks in advance.

1 cm is 39.37% of an inch.

And of course, the Skeptic’s track at Dragon*Con.

PS. That damage looks an awful lot like the hole made in my roof by a falling branch from my neighbors old oak tree. Are you SURE it’s from the meteorite?

Well I’m guessing the bit that’s peeled back and looks cut out – that black plasticky -lino-y covering stuff was NOT the meteorite’s fault but was done by human hands instead!

OTOH, that hole punched right through the roof, yeah I’d buy that as being meteorite damage – wonder if the owner was insured for it?

BTW. I knew about the Thomas Jefferson quote already but I’m glad I read the explanatory link anyhow – that “thunderstones” formed in clouds could be real after all is something fascinating that I didn’t know!

EDITED to add : Further research shows Wikipedia (so far) has a different take on thunderstones & no entry on the old “rock formed in cloud” idea but instead has a folklore entry for them saying thunderstones are worked like stone axes or suchlike not seemingly natural :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderstone_(folklore)

plus a bit on fulgurites or “petrified lightning”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite

- which is sand & rock fused by lightning strikes. Neat.

Yea, that looks like it may have been a meteorite that hit it.

It’s a mineralogical museum and is one of the finest in the SE USA, about a mile from my house. I pass it on my daily walks.

http://notatlanta.org/tellus.html

Also remember, Georgia is home to Georgia Tech, which from the number of tech papers I see with their address, is making a solid stab at being one of the finest institutes of its kind(Like CalTech and MIT).

Just because it’s in the bible belt doesn’t mean it’s inhabited by dummies. After all, I live here,,,

Gary 7
PS. That damage looks an awful lot like the hole made in my roof by a falling branch from my neighbors old oak tree. Are you SURE it’s from the meteorite?

“The cube is one centimeter (about a half inch) on a side, and is used for scale”

one inch is 2.54 centimeters.

The bigger surprise of this story is that there’s a science museum near Cartersville.

(pareidolia!)

See:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/04/16/wisconsin-meteor-update-meteorite-found/#comment-259568

It doesn’t have markings saying that it is 1 CM because the reference isn’t designed as something as a demonstration for the “lay public”– it is a tool of the trade, where anyone familiar with meteorites already knows what it is. The cube is meant to be placed beside the meteorite while still in situ, with the N, S, E, W sides arranged to be in the correct cardinal directions (and usually, with modern finds, including a GPS device with the screen visible beside it also.) It is a tool for documenting the size and orientation of the piece.

Here’s a site with lots of meteorites displayed along with a scale cube:

http://www.niger-meteorite-recon.de/en/Meteoritensammlung_1.htm