I think it’s a bit of the planet clitoris, a little known planet just round the corner from Uranus, some men spend years searching for it. BOOM BOOM. Although I would have thought a meteorite traveling at thousands of miles an hour would leave a large hole in a patio.
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Not topical or funny, but a warm rock landed in our garden...
(136 posts) (39 voices)
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Sinnick
offlineMemberI've tried working out what it's made of. Based on the figures you provided, and estimating the dimensions (I had to guess how fat your fingers are), I think the density works out at around 5.0 (+- a lot) which is significantly lower than most metals (7-9).
The metallic colour doesn't look like iron, rather Vanadium (6.0) or Titanium (4.5).
The crystals would be some type of Olivine which is found in igneous rocks & sometimes in meteorites.
I'll be fascinated to find out what the experts think.
Posted 4 months ago # -
godly1966
offlineMemberlend us a tenner
http://geology.com/meteorites/value-of-meteorites.shtmlPosted 4 months ago # -
Sinnick
offlineMember@godly: meteors slow down dramatically before landing. They start at 25-94,000 mph then slow to a few hundreds. Most burn up or explode, and I guess smithy's example is part of an exploded one; very few survive at all. Florida would be covered in craters from the Space Shuttle if the atmosphere didn't slow them.
Maybe smithy's rock bounced off something before damaging his patio. Would be an interesting insurance claim.
Posted 4 months ago # -
charlies_hat
offlineMemberI found this on my patio this morning, like Waylands, it was still warm to the touch - any ideas ?
Posted 4 months ago # -
I would put money on that one containing horsemeat Charlie.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Titus
offlineMember... or it is a lost pet rock belonging to some inconsolable child alien.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110915194248AAZNz6p
Posted 4 months ago # -
dvo4fun
offlineMemberStrange but true. Reading this thread when there was a rumbling sound and as I looked round a couple of misshapen, solid things flew past the window from above and into the front garden. More meteorite action?
Turned out to be lumps of mortar from around the chimney pots so that's next week's paper-round money gone.
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberThanks for all the helpful links and dog turds, it's much appreciated. I'm going to take it to Liverpool science museum tomorrow for a preliminary gander. if it is worth a fortune, there could be an NB party on me...does everyone like sausage rolls and panda pop?
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberSinnick, I share your sentiment, but there is a limit.
Our family has given 2 crazy objects to museums (the hour hand off the clock at Dartmoor prison is probably the oddest). But I sometimes wish they were actually in the house instead of the museum.
Posted 4 months ago # -
AReader
offlineMemberIt's odd that it was warm because most meteorites are very cold when they land. My theory is that it fell from the roof of your house after being warmed in the sun.
Or its radioactive.
Could you photograph it from more than one side and turn it over and photograph it again and then post those pictures?
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberRight, had some feedback...
Man from Natural History Museum looked at the pictures, and said it didn't look natural, and was likely to be from the steel industry or somesuch. But this morning, we took it to The World Museum in Liverpool. The man in there reckons that it's Galena with malachite in it. Apparently there's lots of it under the Lake District, because it was once a super volcano. He said it showed signs of being heated.
So why was it warm, where did it come from, and how did it land on my patio? Should I get a third opinion?
Posted 4 months ago # -
Squudge
offlineMembersmall tornado sucked it up and bunged it back down perhaps? Quite large lumps of ice (so reasonably heavy) can get recycled in thunderheads for quite a while, and there is a layer of the atmos that some spectacular thunderheads get up to where the air is very warm.
what was the weather like that day?
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberHi Squudge,
It was cold, and sleeting. The only problem is, it was warm to the touch, which confuses the hell out of me!
Some more images:
This is the stone where it ended up. The light, circular mark wasn't there before, and is still clearly visible when its wet:
So, probably not from space...but that's even weirder, I reckon! How does a warm, naturally occuring lump of rock land from the sky?
Posted 4 months ago # -
Squudge
offlineMemberif there WAS a really good thunderstorm in the same county (hence tornado theory - we have more per square mile than anywhere else on earth ...they are just 'crap' tornados), it might be worth getting a geologist to check whether the surface is consistent with superheating from lightning.
or it IS a meteorite - there is no law says they can't be metallic - could be the centre of a knacked planet
Posted 4 months ago #
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