So You Think You Found a Meteorite – Expert Shares Her Secrets for Finding a Meteorite in Your Backyard
A meteorite hit my house back in 2004… and many readers of this blog shared their discoveries. At no time was I ever suggesting that you endanger yourself by climbing up on your roof to drag a magnet through your gutters. But many of you did… and you found lots of cool stuff. Instead of climbing up on your roof, try this – The next time it rains, place a bucket under a drain spout in order to collect a good quantity of rain. Get rid of the leaves and roofing materials and then sift the remains through a bit of old window screen. What you’re after is so small that you’ll need a very strong magnet (neodymium magnet) to find them. Use this super-strong magnet to determine if any of the remaining particles contain iron. Those particles may be space dust, also known as micrometeorites.
Here’s the problem… I’ve always wondered if I really found a meteorite. So I asked meteorite expert, Dr. Suzanne Metlay, to help me solve my quandary. Dr. Metlay was Education Programs Manager at Fiske Planetarium at CU-Boulder until 2008. She is now Operations Director
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