“There’s a romantic notion of being able to have something from between Mars and Jupiter. “It’s from outer space,” said Darryl Pitt, who curates a major meteorite collection. Some collectors are drawn to meteorites for purely aesthetic reasons, but many are also captivated by the scientific novelty of the pieces. The South American told him about an extra-wide detector he used to search for buried rocks. He didn’t know how to comb such a vast area for buried meteorites until 2005, when he bumped into an Argentinian hunter at a meteorite show in Denver. Prospectors swept through the area and discovered a half-ton pallasite.Īrnold – who grew up in a small town in eastern Kansas – browsed the journals of meteorite hunters and determined that the land wasn’t as thoroughly searched as others believed. Homesteaders in the 1880s were the first to recognize the unusual richness of the land. Ten percent of the meteorites found in the United States have come from the western Kansas region, which was showered with debris when a huge meteor broke up in the atmosphere untold thousands of years ago. As the rocks fall through the atmosphere, the heat and pressure can mold them into odd shapes. On Stream’s store, meteorites go from 30 to upward of 90,000. Meteorites are extraterrestrial debris from asteroids and comets that collide with the Earth. Meet the Meteorite Hunters Who Rush In When Space Rocks Crash to Earth For this community of space cowboys, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts, a fireball streaming across the sky offers big risks. Meteorite prices vary widely, with the type and size of rock being the biggest factors for sellers pricing their wares. Meteorite hunting: Found one The rich black fusion crust on this specimen made it visible from about ten feet away, against the light ochre soil. It will be featured in the first all-meteorite auction, scheduled for today in New York. Weighing 1,400 pounds, the pallasite – the most sought-after type of meteorite, composed of iron streaked with dazzling crystals – is believed to be worth between $600,000 and $1 million. Meteorite hunters: how we found the first bit of UK space rock in over 30 years Published: Ma10. Within two weeks, he unearthed the world’s biggest intact pallasite. In 2005, Arnold systemically began to search the meteorite- rich prairies of western Kansas. He has dodged police in Oman, had his truck break down in a Chilean desert and bicycled the streets of suburban Chicago holding a broomstick with a magnet tied to its end – searching for space rock.īut it was in Kansas that he found the meteorite that would make him famous. “Doing the same thing over and over again.” All over the world. In 16 chapters, Meteorite Hunting compares and explains different hunting strategies, examines strewnfields and craters, and discusses the best field equipment. “What’s the definition of insanity?” asks Arnold, 41. Meteorite hunting became a popular hobby starting in the late 1950s during the space race and saw increased activity from the 1980s to the present. Meteorite Hunting is packed with scores of never-before-seen photos, including behind-the-scenes pictures from Season One and Season Two of Meteorite Men. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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