Scientists say an apparent fragment from a meteor that lit up Midwestern skies this week has been recovered in southwestern Wisconsin. The fragment weighs 0.3 pounds and is about the size of an unshelled peanut. Read more
Meteor fragment lands in UW-Madison geoscience department
Researchers in the Department of Geoscience had the opportunity Friday morning to analyse a rock fragment they believe is from the meteor that blazed through the skies over parts of Wisconsin and Iowa Wednesday night. The rock measures approximately 2 inches by 3/4 of an inch and weighs 7.5 grams. It contains gray, white, and reddish minerals and one side is covered by a thin "fusion crust" of darker material that forms when a meteor heats up as it passes through Earth's atmosphere. It was found around 8:30 a.m. Thursday by a farmer west of Madison. The fragment had hit the roof of his shed. Read more
Looks like southern Wisconsin's the place to be right now if you want to hunt for fresh meteorites. Pieces of meteorite from Wednesday night's amazing fireball appear to have fallen over the Livingston area between Platteville and Avoca. Read more
Doppler Radar from the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities appeared to capture a portion of the smoke trail from the fireball at 0302z (1002 PM CDT). Source
Longitude: 42°53'36.42"N, Longitude: 90°26'33.55"W (Position of captured flight path)
Ed ~ The ground path of the meteor indicates it was not a gamma Virginid meteor.
A normal meteor can be as a small as a grain of sand or a pea, but, according to NASA, this meteor was about estimated to be 3 feet wide. Meteors that size only hit the Earth about 10 times a year. This meteor might have completely burned up in the sky or pieces of it might have landed anywhere from Milwaukee to St. Louis. Read more
Researchers in the UW-Madison Department of Geoscience are asking that anyone finding pieces of the meteorite that blazed through the skies of southern Wisconsin on Thursday night bring them to the department for possible analysis. Read more
Following a fireball that lit up the night sky and a sonic boom that rattled houses over a large swath of the Midwest on Wednesday night, another phenomenon is arriving in southwestern Wisconsin: meteorite hunters. Paul Sipiera, adjunct curator of the Field Museum's Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, plans to lead a team of four investigators to Grant County on Friday, and other meteorite hunters are expected to descend on the area too. Read more
Researchers in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Geoscience are making a plea for anyone finding pieces of the meteorite that blazed through the skies of southern Wisconsin last night (Thursday April 14) to bring them to the department for possible analysis. Read more
Ed ~ It is estimated the size of the meteor was around 1-metre. Such objects enter our atmosphere about once a month.
Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded Wednesday night with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said. The fireball was visible for about 15 minutes beginning about 10 p.m., said the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin, just west of Milwaukee. Read more