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Meteorites in your Gutter

Si W

By Si W
in The Astro Lounge

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Si W

Si W

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Have you ever noticed a black and rusty substance in your gutters, Apparently all of our roofs are covered in thousands of micro-meteorites, I recently cleaned my gutters and put the waste in a bucket, topped it up with water to loosen up the debris, them taped a strong magnet to a stick and give it a good mix, when I pulled the magnet out it was covered in small particules of iron, I even had one a couple of millimeters across, not a million pound find :p, but makes cleaning your gutters out more interesting :)

Si

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focaldepth

focaldepth

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I know that a lot of roof tiles are radioactive. That's how people smuggle radioactive materials through checkpoints. Although radiation detectors are more sophisticated these days.

I have always assumed that the **** (pre-censored) in the gutters was powdered roof tile, you have got me thinking now.

We have a black bird that loves to sort through the mess in the gutters and throw it down on the floor below. Wondering if he is actually into meteorology.

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Adamski

Adamski

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saw a guy on tv explaining and showing this subject. The experts say 4000 tons of micro meteorites shower down on Earth every day. Constant accretion, the planet is getting slightly bigger and heavier all the time.

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John

John

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This is something I have been meaning to try out, I have a small meteorite collection so I have an interest in it.

Thanks for the reminder.

Robert Beauford - Micrometeorites

Anyone have a good link for online magnets?

Thats very interesting :p

Over the years I've built up a number of meteorite collections. It must be the "thrill of the hunt" that motivates me because I've then sold the collections (at a loss probably !) to fund astro gear :)

I ought to point out that I've not (so far) been able to actually find any meteorite specimens myself. The hunt I'm referring to is tracking down reputable dealers around the world to get hold of good specimens of interesting falls and finds.

One day I'd love to find one of my own :p

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JB80

JB80

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^ There are also some links on that one that are useful too.

And same here, I have never found one myself. It's another one of those things where you look back and think if only I had that interest back then it would of been perfect. That's why I'm keen to try this method out.

Still my collection is relatively small and no large specimens and I tend to stick to a couple of reputable dealers, my last couple came from Kennedy Space Centre, I was ordering something else and they had some.

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Adamski

Adamski

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I found a fossilised dinosaur tooth, carniverous and big, in a rock full of amonites at west bay in Dorset. A couple of fossil shop owners said it was very rare as it belonged to a land based animal which must have died and washed down stream when Dorset was largely under water. I've set it in silver and wear it on a necklace. But hanen't tried looking for meteorites.

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JB80

JB80

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Still have the 5.5 kilo iron/nick lump that wrecked my mum's car in Cyprus 25 years ago. :p

:)

Totally awesome on so many levels. :p

Mum was probably less impressed than I am.

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John

John

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Still have the 5.5 kilo iron/nick lump that wrecked my mum's car in Cyprus 25 years ago. :p

.....

If it's validated as a meteorite it would be worth a fortune :p

A smaller one that hit a car in the USA currently sells at $350 ..... per gram :)

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Si W

Si W

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Still have the 5.5 kilo iron/nick lump that wrecked my mum's car in Cyprus 25 years ago. :)

Cheers

Ian

p.s. Only find moss in our gutters

awesome, pennies from heaven, did it go through the car like that one in the states ?, apparently she sold the car for a fortune to a collector, and it was only worth a few hundred Dollars.

post-19932-133877608002_thumb.jpg

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chiltonstar

chiltonstar

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A few years ago, I pegged out a large plastic sheet on the lawn just before a predicted good meteorite show, removed the ferromagnetic bits (a few ug), with a magnet after a couple of nights, took it into the lab and analyzed it. It gave the right sort of composition to be meteoritic in origin. So I can imagine there's a fair bit in the average gutter, even if it's oxidized.

Chris

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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A few years ago, I pegged out a large plastic sheet on the lawn just before a predicted good meteorite show, removed the ferromagnetic bits (a few ug), with a magnet after a couple of nights, took it into the lab and analyzed it. It gave the right sort of composition to be meteoritic in origin. So I can imagine there's a fair bit in the average gutter, even if it's oxidized.

Chris

Neat! Should try that together with the kids

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