[meteorite-list] NPA 11-04-1981 Boy Sees Meteorite Land In Backyard
MARK BOSTICK thebigcollector at msn.com
Mon Oct 25 13:35:05 EDT 2004
Paper: Gettysburg Times City: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Date: Wednesday, November 4, 1981 Page: 13 Boy sees meteorite land in backyard NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) - A 13-year-old junior astronomer is the owner of a baseball-size meteorite that he watched fall from the sky and land in his family's vegetable garden. Anthony M. Sarkis Jr. an eighth grader, says he was adjusting his telescope in his front yard Halloween night when he spotted a red fire-ball shoot across the sky and disappear behind his house. Then he heard a boom as loud as a shotgun blast. When he went in the backyard to investigate, there, in the garden, was a crater a foot wide and 4 inches deep. And inside the hole was a glowing red rock. Sankis summoned his parents and called the police. He was later visited by Mayor Richard C. Lamb and William G. Seeley, a physics professor at North Adams State College. "Not in a dozen lifetimes will you see this" Seeley told the boy. "This is a rare occasion. You should be proud of yourself." (end) Clear Skies, Mark Bostick www.meteoritearticles.com
[meteorite-list] NPA 11-05-1981 Prof says meteorite is industrial debris
MARK BOSTICK thebigcollector at msn.com
Mon Oct 25 13:36:01 EDT 2004
Paper: Gettysburg Times City: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Date: Thursday, November 5, 1981 Page: 22 Prof says meteorite is just a piece of industrial debris NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) - An eighth grader who thought he found a meteorite in his back yard is the owner of what appears to be a piece of industrial slag, a Harvard professor said Tuesday. By no means is it a meteorite. said Dr. John A. Wood, a professor of geology involved in research on meteorites at the Smithsonian Observatory, which is affiliated with Harvard. He examined the baseball-sized object the boy said had fallen into the familys vegetable garden Halloween night. It is certainly nothing out of the ordinary and seems to be a piece of slag from an industrial process. Wood said. Anthony J. Sankis Jr., a 13-year-old amateur astronomer, had said he spotted a red fireball shooting across the sky as he was adjusting his telescope Halloween night. When he looked in the garden, Sarkis said he found a foot-wide crater containing a battered rock. The boy and his father took the rock to Woods for identification Tuesday morning after a physics professor at nearby North Adams State College agreed it may be a meteorite. During the weekend, a parade of curious people, including newspaper photographers, police and the mayor of North Adams, visited the Sarkis back yard to view the inch-deep crater. The family also maintained the object was still warm Sunday morning after a night outside, an occurrence Wood said was simply impossible. Im not into meteorites, but it looked very convincing to me. the North Adams State professor, William G. Seeley, said Tuesday afternoon. I told the boys parents to be very sure, because If it was a hoax it would be very easy to find out. On the plus side, both my sons had seen a red track in the sky about the right time. Something tripped in my mind when the boy said he was an amateur astronomer and had been reading about meteorites, but I wasnt sure whether he said he had been reading about then before or after he found the object and convinced myself that the latter has been the case. Its my feeling now that someone probably played a prank on the boy, Seeley said, although the way the thing was set up thats almost as hard to believe as if it had actually happened. (end) Clear Skies, Mark Bostick www.meteoritearticles.com
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