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Post by Marc LeVine on Jan 3, 2007 12:40:04 GMT -5
Mysterious object crashes through roof of Freehold Twp. house
Home News Tribune Online 01/3/07
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP: A metal object about the size of a golf ball and weighing nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through the roof of a Monmouth County home, and authorities today were trying to figure out what it was.
Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces, crashed into the home last night.
Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of a single-family home and damaged tiles on a bathroom floor below.
The object was heavier than a usual metal object of that size, said police Lt. Robert Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was detected.
Brightman would not immediately disclose the address or the names of the people who lived at the home, other than to say that a couple and their adult son live there. He said a man who lived at the home found the object at about 9 p.m. yesterday after returning from work and hearing from his mother that something
had crashed through the roof a few hours before.
The Federal Aviation Administration was sending a team to the town to check whether the object came from an airplane, said spokeswoman Arlene Murray.
""We won't know what it is until our inspectors have a chance to look at it,'' she said. If the investigators cannot identify the object on sight, it may be sent for testing, she said.
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Post by Marc LeVine on Jan 9, 2007 9:24:06 GMT -5
Austrailian Press
Meteorite that crashed into New Jersey home temporarily called Freehold Township Meteorite
By William Atkins
Sunday, 07 January 2007
The 13-ounce (377-gram) oblong object that fell through a New Jersey home’s roof and landed in a second-floor bathroom on January 2, 2007, was an iron meteorite. Upon inspection, its leading edge (the side that was subjected to the atmosphere while descending toward Earth) was smoother than the trailing edge (the backside).
A representative of the local police department (in Freehold Township, about 50 miles south of New York City) said that a geological team had decided, “the meteorite is very metal-rich, and possibly represents the deep interior of an asteroid. Its coloration, markings, density and magnetic properties are characteristic of an iron meteorite,"
Now, that we know what crashed into the home. Let’s learn more about it.
Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are small rocky celestial bodies that reside within the Earth’s solar system. They move in elliptical orbits around the Sun, normally between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally placed asteroids within the category of small solar system bodies (SSSBs). The group of SSSBs includes basically any celestial body within the solar system that is not the Sun, a planet (such as Jupiter), or a dwarf planet (such as Pluto, which was demoted recently by the IAU from a planet to a dwarf planet).
Meteoroids are relatively small solid bodies that orbit the Sun. The IAU defines a meteoroid as “A solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom or molecule.” Most meteoroids are between the size of a dust grain and a boulder. Meteoroids become meteors (commonly called shooting stars) when entering the Earth’s atmosphere. As atmospheric pressure heats up the meteor, a glowing gas trail (fireball) forms due to ionization of its particles. This action produces radiation in the form of light. Many meteors are vaporized before reaching the surface of the Earth.
However, if meteors survive the trip through the atmosphere and hit the Earth’s surface (or another planet) then they are called meteorites. When analyzed on the Earth, meteorites are either iron meteorites (like the one that crashed through the New Jersey home) or stone meteorites. As the name suggests, iron meteorites are composed mostly of iron, but also contain small amounts of nickel and other metals. Stone meteorites consist of stony irons and silicates.
As of the end of 2006, just over 1,050 meteorites have been recovered from the Earth (after being observed falling through the atmosphere). In all, more than 31,000 meteorites have been thoroughly documented. A meteorite is traditionally named for the location in which it lands. The New Jersey meteorite has been temporarily named the Freehold Township Meteorite. The Nomenclature Committee at The Meteoritical Society (http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/simple_template.cfm?code=home_intro) is responsible for the formal naming of the new meteorite.
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Post by Marc LeVine on Jan 9, 2007 9:25:41 GMT -5
FOUND IN NORTH BRUNSWICK
Mystery rock not from space
Home News Tribune Online 01/9/07
By DAVID STEGON
STAFF WRITER
dstegon@thnt.com
NORTH BRUNSWICK — The rock Joseph and Kathleen Marascio found is just a rock after all.
After believing the rock might be connected to the meteorite that fell last week in Freehold, the township couple learned yesterday that the gray, black, yellow and green stone they found in their yard is not from outer space.
"It's been a lot of fun," Joseph Marascio said yesterday. "It's been quite a mystery and a definite conversation piece. Even though it's not from outer space, we're still going to keep it."
The Rutgers Geological Studies tested the rock, which turned out to be basalt thought to be between 150 million and 200 million years old. The common gray to black volcanic rock is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava once it reaches the Earth's surface.
Kathleen Marascio was playing with the couple's dog on Dec. 31 when she thought she heard something fall from the sky. After hearing on the local news about the recent incident in which a meteorite crashed into a house in Freehold, she thought her experience might be connected.
"We're still excited," Joseph Marascio said. "It's still unlike anything I've seen in this world."
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Post by andrewd on Jan 9, 2007 12:03:17 GMT -5
You really got a kick out of that little joke, didn't you Calliope?
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Post by fiberisgoodforyou on Jan 9, 2007 14:33:01 GMT -5
How about John Waters and Hitch AND Kubrick ...I know, nothing Written, but the images that would be concocted ....  |
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Post by Freehold Resident on Jan 9, 2007 16:19:05 GMT -5
>How about John Waters and Hitch AND Kubrick ...I know, nothing Written, but the images that would be concocted ....
Now THAT would be awesome!
F R
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Post by admin on Jan 9, 2007 16:35:07 GMT -5
Stephen King is better when he writes as Richard Bachman. And please do not forget Clive Barker
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Post by fiberisgoodforyou on Jan 9, 2007 18:41:39 GMT -5
FR...You know, that would be!!! Lets head down to Baltimore to pitch it , Call it "In Search of Dead Devinne: a Spaced Oddity" A John Waters thriller dead-icated to and Hitch & Kubrick !!! Callio... ever thing about doing a screen play... (please go easy on me .....clearly been a stressed week and it's only tuesday) |
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Post by Marc LeVine on Jan 11, 2007 13:06:06 GMT -5
South African Press (They released the names of the homeowners)
It came from outer space...
11/01/2007 07:22 - (SA)
Freehold Township, New Jersey - A hole in the roof, a bathroom full of debris and a strange, silvery rock near the toilet - the Nageswaran family soon realised they needed an astronomer, not a contractor, to fully explain what damaged their house.
Scientists determined it was a meteorite that crashed through the roof of their central New Jersey home more than a week ago.
While extraterrestrial rocks fall to the Earth with some regularity, it is rare for them to strike homes.
"The fact that something from outer space hit our house ... it's overwhelming," Shankari Nageswaran said in an interview. She and her husband, Srinivasan Nageswaran, a 46-year-old consultant for information technology companies, are from India and have lived in Freehold Township since 2003.
On the night of January 2, Srinivasan Nageswaran walked into his bathroom and spotted a hole in the ceiling and small chunks of drywall and insulation littering the room.
His mother, who has been staying with the family, recalled that she had heard a loud boom a few hours earlier and thought it was a post-New Year's fireworks explosion. But that did not explain the mess.
The family initially thought an old patch job in the ceiling had come loose. The mystery deepened after Shankari Nageswaran started cleaning up. On the floor directly below the hole, under an evergreen bath mat, the tile was dented. There was another dent on the wall.
Near the back of the toilet, she found a metallic rock, about the same size and shape as the hole in the ceiling. The sparkly rock was the size of a golf ball but heavier at 370g.
'Poor man's space probe'
Her husband shined a flashlight through the hole in the ceiling, then stuck a long stick in, and realised there was another hole in the roof.
It was not until the next morning that his father suggested the mysterious rock came from outer space, and they called police.
Two geologists from Rutgers University, along with an independent metallurgist, soon arrived. They concluded that the rock - tentatively named "Freehold Township" - was an iron meteorite.
"It could have done great damage and destruction," Srinivasn Nageswaran marveled. "It could have hurt our people."
About 50 meteorites reach the Earth's surface each year, but with humans occupying only a small part of the planet, there is only one report every year or two of meteorites hitting buildings, said Tim McCoy, curator of the Smithsonian Institution's meteorite collection.
Every meteorite serves as a "poor man's space probe", yielding information on how the solar system formed, McCoy said.
"There's been fewer than 5 000 meteorites found over the surface of the Earth in the recorded history of mankind," McCoy said. "Every time we get a new one, it's an important event."
Meteorites that hit buildings can be sold for thousands of dollars (euros).
The Nageswarans have not decided what to do with their meteorite, despite plenty of advice from family and friends. But they said they want to make sure that the rock, which they have locked up at a bank, serves an educational purpose.
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Post by fiberisgoodforyou on Jan 11, 2007 14:10:02 GMT -5
We have had more Meteors come down from the Sky this winter that Snow!!!
Global warming?.... The solar systems is imploding in on us!
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Post by Marc LeVine on Jan 26, 2007 14:11:31 GMT -5
Come See the Meteorite
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) - January 25, 2007 - It caused a sensation earlier this month when it crashed through the roof of a Freehold Township family's home, landing in the bathroom.
Now members of the public will have a chance to catch a glimpse of the golf ball-sized, silvery meteorite that came to the Garden State from outer space, Rutgers University announced Wednesday.
Rutgers' geology museum in New Brunswick plans to hold a one-day display of the meteorite during its annual open house, scheduled for Saturday. Admission is free.
Two geologists from Rutgers, along with an independent metallurgist, helped Freehold Township police and the homeowners, the Nageswaran family, identify the golf-ball-sized, 13-ounce object as a metal-rich meteorite, possibly from the deep interior of a broken-up asteroid.
The Nageswarans recently said they were still deciding what to do with their meteorite, but wanted it to serve an educational purpose.
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