Meteorites Older Than Earth Discovered In Eastern Arizona
Remember the light in the sky from a few weeks ago? Well, it produced a find of a lifetime for some Arizona State University researchers.
After a four-day search, a team of meteorite hunters found pieces of the asteroid that lit up the sky. The search team was huddled around literal pieces of history Wednesday afternoon as they discussed a remarkable find.
"We were lucky to find that one; had we not we might have found nothing," said Laurence Garvie, curator of ASU's Center for Meteorite Studies.
The crusade launched after theenormous fireball crossed eastern Arizona skies in early June.
"What we had was tantalizing information that indicated there was meteorites on the ground in the form of doppler radar," Garvie said."The big fireball comes in at 40,000 mph, explodes in the atmosphere and, if we're lucky, dropped stones onto the ground."
Not knowing what they might find, the team embarked on the journey in the remote landscape of the White Mountain Apache Tribe territory.
"I was actually screaming Laurence's name, saying, 'Come here! I think I found a meteorite!'" Pragkta Mane, an ASU graduate student said. "It was crazy. I did not think that I would do (sic); it's very hard to study these things in the lab and it's very hard to envision how it will look in a natural environment."
In all, they discovered 15 meteorites, all of which are now being preserved in tiny plastic cases and handled only with rubber gloves. The team's search for answers has only just begun.
"We don't know anything about where it came from; the rock, it was sitting apart, so what can these little pieces tell us about the larger object as a whole," said Daniel Dunlap, an ASU graduate student.
It's not clear how much the meteorites are worth; ASU researchers say they're on loan and are property of the Apache Tribe.
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