Freshly fallen meteor fragments found in Saskatchewan

by Stevie Smith - Dec 2 2008, 13:00

Meteor fragments found on frozen pond in Saskatchewan. Image: Sky News.

It would appear the search for pieces of last week's spectacular exploding meteor has now paid off after University of Calgary meteor expert Alan Hildebrand successfully located fallen fragments sitting atop a frozen pond in Saskatchewan.

According to the Edmonton Journal, masters student Ellen Milley initially spotted small black lumps strewn across the pond's icy surface while the pair were searching for possible impact sites across the province's rural regions – which is where Hildebrand initially said he suspected the meteor had broken up.

Resulting investigations upon the pond, which is situated in Lone Rock, a few kilometres short of the Alberta border, subsequently saw the efforts of Hildebrand and Milley rewarded by the discovery of a 250g chunk of frozen space rock.

The pond is situated on cattle ranch property owned by Ian Mitchell, who had heard search parties believed the meteor had come down somewhere over his land.

According to Mr. Mitchell, he had initially expected to stumble upon fragments at some point in the future but then found a wind shield note on his car from Hildebrand informing him of the discovery late on Thursday.

“We call this Fish Pond, because in the summer we stock it with trout,” said Mr. Mitchell. “But now I think it's going to be Meteorite Pond.”

Hildebrand and Milley's search on the frozen pond and throughout the surrounding area returned around 12 meteor fragments, although none as substantial as the 250g chunk. However, the pair believe that more pieces are yet to be uncovered, and that some may be equal in size to a football.

According to Hildebrand, the November 20 meteor caught on camera hurtling through the atmosphere on its fiery descent over Alberta and Saskatchewan weighed an estimated 10 tonnes prior to exploding into a myriad smaller meteorites.

Preliminary analysis of the meteor chunks has revealed that the falling rock was originally part of a much larger asteroid, which formed around 4.5 billion years ago, according to Hildebrand.

“We call it an ordinary condrite,” he explained before adding that the recovered pieces consist mostly of stone and iron metal, but that further analysis is necessary to learn more about specific age, composition and origin.

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Huntly GordonDec 2nd, 2008 - 18:14:58

Stevie Smith needs to brush up on his/ her grammar. ....'her and Hildebrand were searching' should read she and H were searching...

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Jimmy JDec 3rd, 2008 - 10:57:39

How very nice of you to be on the lookout for possible gramatical errors for the rest of us. If only there were some way we could pay you for such services.

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Jimmy KDec 3rd, 2008 - 13:01:17

Here, Here!

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Jimmy GDec 3rd, 2008 - 13:48:06

word

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AriusDec 3rd, 2008 - 13:51:28

It's grammatical.

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MarcDec 3rd, 2008 - 14:10:12

How very nice of you to be on the lookout for possible spelling errors for the rest of us. If only there were some way we could pay you for such services.

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LeslieDec 3rd, 2008 - 16:18:34

hear hear

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wsDec 3rd, 2008 - 17:24:31

i wuz gonna say that!

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KaiDec 3rd, 2008 - 21:14:16

word

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HermanDec 3rd, 2008 - 23:39:17

A pictures worth a thousand words...