Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Argentina: Meteorite Crash Confirmed

Source: INFOBAE de Buenos Aires
Date: 04-09-08


Argentina: Meteorite Crash Confirmed

Scientists have ratified that the remains found in the locality of Colonia Verdu showed signs of having entered the atmosphere, and dismissed the possibility that it could have been "space junk"

Five rock fragmnets found in an area beloning to the El Palmar National park were analyzed by scientists from the Asociacion Entrerriana de Astronomia (AEA) and yielded positive results. They stated that what fell in that province on Sunday night was in fact a meteorite.

The larger object -- the size of a fist -- and the 4 remaining ones, almost 3 cm in diameter, were subjected to magnetization tests that yielded positive results. The blackish color of the rocks was further corroborated as the hue generated by the ablation resulting from entry into the atmosphere, according to the La Republica de Entre Rios web portal.

AEA qualified the remains as "fragile". For that reason, they beleive that contact with the Earth's surface led to the meteorite shattering into hundreds of pieces, thus making the search for the missing parts much harder. Laboratory results are still expected, which will allow the origin of the rocks to be determined with precision. However, the possibility of "space junk" was discarded.

(Translation (c) 2008, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)