Meteorite lands in back yard
Dianne Morris collected bits of a meteor from her back yard early Monday morning.
Published Tue, Jun 10, 2003
By CHRIS BENDER
Gazette staff writer
Dianne Morris saw something out of this world while walking her dogs early Monday morning. A meteorite landed in the Beaufort resident's back yard at about 3:40 a.m.
"I was only about 15 feet away from it when it came down," said Morris. "It had a smoky white tail."
Morris said small glowing flames dropped from it as it came down and it made a loud popping sound before hitting the ground. It didn't leave a depression, and she was able to pick up several pieces.
Morris plans on keeping the few extraterrestrial pieces. While reports like Morris' do come in on occasion, they usually aren't actual meteorites, said Christina Lacey, a professor at the University of South Carolina's physics and astronomy department.
"I've never heard of (the reports) panning out," Lacey said. "Certainly, meteorites do hit the Earth."
Nothing unusual was detected by the radar at the air station Monday morning, said Master Sgt. Terrance Peck, public affairs chief for Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. Officials at the National Weather Service in Charleston said a meteorite would be moving too fast for them to track.
What a meteorite is made of is one of the factors that determines whether it makes it to the Earth's surface. Lacey said meteorites coming from passing comets, which are composed of ice, usually burn up, while iron-based meteorites that come from asteroids might make it to the surface.
Meteorites usually are made of melted minerals with some containing iron-nickel alloys.
"Most meteorites tend to be very simple" in composition, Lacey said. "Most meteorites do land in water."
According to the National Air and Space Administration's Web site, each day as many as 4 billion meteoroids, most minuscule in size, enter Earth's atmosphere. Most of these meteors burn up from atmospheric friction and never reach the ground.
The angle at which the meteoroid enters the planet's atmosphere can also determine whether it breaks up, skips back into space or explodes. Lacey said rarely do man-made meteorites make it to Earth, and when they do it's usually over water.
If someone does recover something they think is a meteorite, Lacey said geologists can usually tell whether it's from outer space or not.
"You could talk to the geology department at Clemson, the University of South Carolina or the College of Charleston and they could identify it," Lacey said. "A lot of times they can do it just by looking at it."
Morris said she doesn't plan on doing anything like that, though she does admit it's somewhat unbelievable.
"I just wish I had a video camera at the time," she said. "Without a movie, it's like no one believes you."