In general, meteorites are remnants of the beginnings of the solar system and about 4.5 billion years old – give or take 100 million years. There are 3 types: Stony, Iron and a Stony-Iron mix. Iron is the kind that is most commonly found. It has a high concentration of iron. It is heavy and attracts a magnet. It also has cobalt and nickel. The thing that separates a meteorite from an earth rock is the composition. A piece of iron found on earth will usually not have the same nickel concentration as a meteorite.

The fireball here had a general trajectory of NW to SE and burst into a small “strewn field”. The field is a V with the “big piece” at the point and as you go further out, the smaller the pieces get. He believes there is an 80 pound “big piece” out there somewhere near Mineral Point. It will be buried in regular soil 2 – 3 feet down, but work its way back up in a few years due to frost heave.

He is very grateful to Tim Boldt for the specimen he gave for research. They call it the “type specimen” – the baseline for the composition of this meteorite. They need to study it within 6 weeks because the low-level radioactive particles have a short half-life on Earth. They were hampered in their study. They had to send it to Italy for the full battery of tests, but it was delayed due to the Iceland volcano.

Paul believes in the importance of meteorite study to understanding the building blocks of earth-like planets. Some special meteorites carry 47 organic compounds and water. Some believe that is the origin of life on Earth. He believes that the next 40 - 50 years may result in discoveries of bacteria on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn! He believes this is possible due to the special meteorites impacting these moons.

Thanks for the wonderful speech!

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