Paper: Daily Intelligencer City: Doylestown, Pennsylvania Date: Wednesday, December 22, 1982 Page: 27
Smithsonian returns meteorite
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. (AP) - The Smithsonian Institution wants to display the meteorite that landed here last month, but the owners of the house hit by the rock aren't sure they want to give it up.
"We're trying to arrange with the public library to put it on display," Wanda Donohue. "The people in town should have the opportunity to see it. After that, we're not sure."
The meteorite, which scientists say weighed about 50 pounds before hitting the Earth's surface and breaking up on Nov. 8, was recently returned - minus a few fragments - to Mrs. Donahue and her husband, Robert.
The black, stony mass has been analyzed at the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richard, Wash., a government-run facility. Chips of the meteorite are undergoing further study at Battelle and in Washington, D.C.; Houston and elsewhere.
Roy S. Clarke Jr., curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, said the meteorite that hit the Donohues' house is similar to the one that landed about a mile away in Wethersfield in 1971.
"They are the same, identical class and thus are probably related in space and time." Clarke said. "But how close that relationship is is hard to know."
Clarke said both rocks are known as L-6 chondrites, the most common type of meteorite found on Earth. But he said the Donohues' meteorite is important because it is the "freshest" meteorite ever studied.
The L-6 chondrites are believed to come from the asteroid belt, a cluster of matter that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Many scientists believe the asteroids are remnants of an exploded planet.
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Clear Skies, Mark Bostick Wichita, Kansas http://www.meteoritearticles.com http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com http://www.imca.cc
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The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
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