* Astronomy

A rare 1,400-pound meteorite was discovered seven feet underground by a collector in an area long known for producing prized space rocks.
Using a metal detector mounted on a three-wheel vehicle, Steve Arnold of Kingston, Arkansas, found the huge stony-iron pallasite two weeks ago on a farm near Haviland, in Kiowa County's Brenham Township in southern Kansas.

The meteorite is classified as an oriented pallasite, a type noted for a conical shape with olivine crystals embedded in iron-nickel alloy. Only two larger ones of that type are known to have been found: a 3,100-pounder in Australia and a 1,500-pounder in Argentina.


Credit Geoffrey Noykin.
Steve Arnold, right, found a meterorite on the far of Allen Binford, left, near Haviland.

"It's a gorgeous museum quality specimen” - Steve Arnold .

The Kansas rock was found in the same area that in 1949 produced a 1,000-pound meteorite now on display at the Celestial Museum in Greensburg.
Meteorites change shape as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. An oriented meteorite, which is rare, maintains a stable flight rather than tumbling.

"It is aesthetically the type of meteorite that makes collectors drool...It's what a meteorite ought to look like. It's going to make first-graders go 'Wow!' " - Steve Arnold

Arnold, who has hunted for meteorites around the world estimates his find is worth "seven figures." Arnold said he wants to sell it, preferably to a museum or someone who will keep it intact.
According to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the so-called Brenham meteorite exploded centuries ago over what is now Kansas, scattering more than three tons of fragments.
Richard Stephenson, manager of the Big Well in Greensburg, said the majority of meteorites found in Kiowa County come from a two-square-mile area in Brenham Township.
The meteorites of Kiowa County are known throughout the world for their gemlike olivine crystals, which look almost like stained glass when cut.

"We get regular reports of meteorites. People see them, and they bring them in. A normal size is anywhere from the size of your fist to a grapefruit"- Rex Buchanan, associate director of the Kansas Geological Survey.

Prehistoric Indians used the rust-coloured stones to fashion into sacred objects, earrings, knives, chisels and even buttons and beads.
In the 1920s and 1930s, one of the world's foremost meteorite hunters, Harvey H. Nininger, examined a large depression that locals thought was a buffalo wallow. It turned out to be an impact crater.

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-- Edited by Blobrana at 15:12, 2005-11-12