Fourth-grader finds meteorite in yard
BY KAREN VOYLES
THE GAINESVILLE SUN (Florida)
November 18, 2007
CEDAR KEY - A fourth-grader got a personal,
hands-on lesson in
meteorites earlier this week.
Jeremiah Barnes, 10, was the featured speaker in
science classes at
Cedar Key School Friday, where he explained how he
saw the meteorite
fall into his yard at the beginning of the week.
After seeing an object streak into the yard,
Jeremiah told high school
classes he initially thought one of his cousins
had thrown something
over the fence. After running over to the object
and touching it,
Jeremiah said he knew it was something
extraordinary.
"It burned my finger so I ran in the house and got
my sister," Jeremiah
said.
After seeing a blister rise on her brother's index
finger, Angel Neese,
a 14-year-old ninth-grader, doused the object with
water from the garden
house. Brother and sister watched in fascination
as the water being
poured into the shoebox-sized hole made by the
object instantly began
boiling.
"It kind of looked like lava from a volcano, but
then I remembered what
we learned in [eighth-grade] science class. And I
kind of thought it
would be a meteorite," Angel said. After the
object cooled, Angel
pointed out the metals in it to her little brother
and explained what
she remembered about objects superheating when
they entered the Earth's
atmosphere.
Jeremiah presented the molten lump to high school
science teacher
Richard Whitman, who confirmed it was a meteorite
and called the
astronomy department at the University of Florida
to try to figure out
the odds of a fourth-grader in the state's
smallest public school
actually seeing a meteorite hit the ground.
"Not a real likely event," Whitman said. "For
anyone."
Jeremiah said he plans to keep the meteorite and
is cautious about who
gets to handle his new treasure. After telling his
story to the high
school science students, Jeremiah answered
questions, then walked from
desk to desk allowing the teenagers to look and
touch, but being careful
to make sure it remained over a desk to reduce the
risk of an accidental
drop.
"I want to make sure I have it always, and it
doesn't ever get broken,"
Jeremiah said.
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