Last night I visited a friend who had ... to my surprise ... found an original of the FIND A FALLING STAR book on his shelf. He gladly lent it to me on request, and last night rather than sleeping much I had a Nininger Moment.
Has anyone ever recovered meteorites from the November 9, 1923 fall ?
Where is the "crowbar" from the blacksmith from the Toluca fall presently?
What is a ballpark worth of the collection he described as US $530,000 today?
What happened to the American Meteorite Laboratory and its equipment?
How many of "recognized" recoveries in the 20th century (1901-2000, or 1900-1999, take your pick) were credited to Nininger? An estimate is OK if the tally of the total isn't yet known!
Where can we see, online, cowboy Charlie Brown's famous fireball photo?
Is the semantics of the word meteorite worked out yet? Is a rock in space a meteorite (Nininger calls it that, and makes no use of the term meteoroid)?
Inspired:
Do all oriented meteorites tend to a predictable "nose cone" shape? What is known about the resulting ablated shapes (hemisphere, hemi-ellipse, sum of them, other)?
Are individual chondrules thought to be still floating around in space, and/or a significant part of the "dust" meteors observed outside of meteor showers (to remove the cometary particles)?
What were Nininger's comments on "Allende"...I am surprised it didn't make his book?
Is an Aerolite not an OK term in English for an iron? In French?
Theoretically, how big of a piece of ice (perfect sphere) would be needed at a common entry velocity and angle and average atmospheric temp., hypothetically, if it didn't fracture, to not melt/vaporize and touch ground. For a rough idea...
Related for fun:
Should a meteorite impacting a satellite and subsequently recovered be called a meteorite? How about if it is an intentional probe (Stardust mission)? Are materials from the falls on Mars correctly called meteorites, or must they be Martian meteorites, Lunar, etc.
Saludos
Doug Dawn
Mexico
