As pretty much everyone in greater Tucson already knows, a bright fireball lit up the skies on Tuesday night. It appears to have traveled northeast from somewhere around Sierra Vista. Many people saw the fireball, and a number of witnesses also heard sonic booms. Those thundering sounds can be caused by sudden deceleration of the meteor, or possibly by fragments exploding in the air.

Yesterday I did a segment for KOLD’s 60 Second Science demonstrating what meteorites look like, and what might have caused the fireball. My team is also actively searching for information about the event. If you live in communities to the south, east, or southeast of Tucson, keep a lookout for small, very black rocks, that stick to a magnet (meteorites usually contain iron).

When a meteor burns in the atmosphere, its surface becomes charred—much like a charcoal briquette—and acquires a thin, black rind known as fusion crust. A large fireball can deposit hundreds, or even thousands of meteorites over an area of many square miles. If you notice any unusual rocks on the road, or driveway, or in your yard, that were not there before the fireball, please let us know! Recovering freshly-fallen meteorites is very important for scientific study. If you have any information related to the fireball, feel free to give our recovery team a call at (520) 742 3333.

This freshly fallen stone meteorite was recovered by my team in April, 2009 in Sasketchewan. It was part of the Buzzard Coulee meteorite shower of November 20, 2008. Note the black fusion crust. Most meteorites are heavier than earth rocks, and will easily stick to a magnet.

Also, if you heard anything tap or bang your roof around 9:20 or 9:30 pm on Tuesday night, your house might have been hit by a falling meteorite. Really. We have a number of documented cases where meteorites have hit houses, right here in the USA. A large meteorite would likely travel straight through your house, and end up on the ground floor. A smaller one would probably bounce off the roof and make a rattling noise, much like the sound of hailstones.

So far, to the best of our knowledge, nothing has been recovered from the June 23 fireball. But that does not mean there is nothing to be found. Keep your eyes open! There could be an extraterrestrial visitor lying in your yard. And don’t worry: meteorites are not radioactive and, as far as we know, do not contain tiny aliens in space suits.

And finally, for today, we’d like to thank the KOLD news and meteorology team for being such a delight to work with!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Meteorite Science. Tags for this post: 60 Second Science, Arizona meteor, Buzzard Coulee, KOLD News, meteorite hunting, meteorites, Tucson fireball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.