News
A rock collection from out of this world
The fireball accompanied by sonic booms was seen and heard from Canada to Northern Oregon and from the Pacific Coast to Idaho. The June 3 phenomenon was too fast and too heavy to be anything but a meteor, says Dick Pugh, an expert with PSU’s Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory.
He estimates the meteor started out the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and as it entered the atmosphere over the Puget Sound it broke up many times, producing dozens of fragments. Those fragments, which can now be called meteorites since they hit the ground, are most likely strewn in the vicinity of Randle and Packwood, Washington.
“We haven’t had a fireball with a sonic boom since the mid-1990s,” Pugh says. “That means it slowed down below 700 mph, so that’s why I think fragments may have reached the ground.”
Meteorites are like gold to Pugh and his fellow Cascadia Meteorite Lab scientists, Alex Ruzicka and Melinda Hutson. Adding one of these latest meteorites to the lab’s collection will provide students and researchers with new opportunities for discovery.
Ruzicka and Hutson established the Cascadia Meteorite laboratory at PSU in spring 2002, and it already contains a collection of more than 200 specimens valued at more than $1 million. Most of the meteorites are unclassified and have never been examined before, providing a unique learning tool for students and scientists.
“Meteorites give us a free sample from other planets and asteroids,” says Ruzicka. “And from asteroidal samples we can see the steps involved in forming the solar system and earth.” Some meteorites even contain grains of material that are known to predate our solar system, he adds.
The laboratory does not display the meteorites it houses, but recently Ruzicka and Hutson put together a public exhibit of 52 specimens for long-term loan to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro. They developed the exhibit as part of a three-year Education and Public Outreach grant from NASA. The grant also supports a middle school and high school education component.
Anyone who has found fragments from the June fireball or wants more information on the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory may contact Ruzicka at 503-725-3372. For location and hours of the Rice Northwest Museum in Hillsboro, call 503-647-2418.
He estimates the meteor started out the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and as it entered the atmosphere over the Puget Sound it broke up many times, producing dozens of fragments. Those fragments, which can now be called meteorites since they hit the ground, are most likely strewn in the vicinity of Randle and Packwood, Washington.
“We haven’t had a fireball with a sonic boom since the mid-1990s,” Pugh says. “That means it slowed down below 700 mph, so that’s why I think fragments may have reached the ground.”
Meteorites are like gold to Pugh and his fellow Cascadia Meteorite Lab scientists, Alex Ruzicka and Melinda Hutson. Adding one of these latest meteorites to the lab’s collection will provide students and researchers with new opportunities for discovery.
Ruzicka and Hutson established the Cascadia Meteorite laboratory at PSU in spring 2002, and it already contains a collection of more than 200 specimens valued at more than $1 million. Most of the meteorites are unclassified and have never been examined before, providing a unique learning tool for students and scientists.
“Meteorites give us a free sample from other planets and asteroids,” says Ruzicka. “And from asteroidal samples we can see the steps involved in forming the solar system and earth.” Some meteorites even contain grains of material that are known to predate our solar system, he adds.
The laboratory does not display the meteorites it houses, but recently Ruzicka and Hutson put together a public exhibit of 52 specimens for long-term loan to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro. They developed the exhibit as part of a three-year Education and Public Outreach grant from NASA. The grant also supports a middle school and high school education component.
Anyone who has found fragments from the June fireball or wants more information on the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory may contact Ruzicka at 503-725-3372. For location and hours of the Rice Northwest Museum in Hillsboro, call 503-647-2418.