Can I find it? That Meteorite.


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Well boys I was hoping to have photos of a meteor by now. About 6 weeks ago I was at my ranch which is pretty much out in the desert. The sun had just come over the mountains. I was out at the shop and I just turned north and saw what at first thought it was a really big white bird dive bombing. Far as I can tell it was about 1/2 mile to a mile away. So I looked to see if it would come back up if it was a bird dive bombing. But again I've never seen a big white bird ever dive bombing anyways. Lol. Then I realized it was a glowing white meteor. The way it was coming down was so surreal. If it was night then I would of right off knew it was a falling star. But with the sun up it looked like some kind of white thing. I'm thinking it could be as big as a football. It was a pretty big glow and should be a good crater. So about the first month I spent a hour or two at sunrise searching. I kind of stop for a couple weeks I was thinking about just giving up but I started looking again with some new enthusiasm. But I so blew it when it fell I should of really study the spot at where it fell, now I can't remember. I have a good landmark. These big power lines that run across in the area. When I first was looking to see where it fell I was thinking it fell to the right of the one power poles. But now I'm questioning was to the right or the left or even farther to the left or farther to the right. I so blow it. But every time I go I think is this the day I'll found the crater and the meteorite.

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I've read from the experts that people think they can go drive a mile or two and go find the "shooting star" they watched fall from the sky. Unfortunately the meteor they saw might have been hundreds of miles away up in the sky and all they saw was the object just deflecting off the atmosphere and disintegrating. Or they did see a meteorite that made its way through (when they make their way through the atmosphere I believe a meteor is then classified as a meteorite) but because of all the complexities with its trajectory, distance and the curvature of the earth it could still be very, very far away.

I believe the flash and light people see (like the one filmed in Chelyabinsk, Russia) is only from the meteorite entering the atmosphere. But sometimes because of the size of the object that event can appear VERY close, like only a mike away in the sky. Once the meteorite punches through the atmosphere it begins rapidly cooling (it's COLD way up there) and enters into "dark flight" and just begins to fall on its own gravity. So your best bet for finding a fresh meteorite is to witness the flash, and if you're that close you'll probably hear the sonic boom, then hoprfully you'll actually see the rock falling from the sky.

Meteorites are quite common, technically every square mile of the earth should have a few of them, but they may be as small as a pebble. If they're fresh they'll look like a little charcoal briquette but if they've been sitting around for awhile on the surface they'll take on a "desert patina" like all the other surrounding rocks and will be almost impossible to find without a metal detector or magnet stick. They'll only stay on the surface in a place like Arizona also because of the dry, hard soil. Back east they'll soon get absorbed into the soft ground and if they're iron they'll just rust away into nothing eventually.

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Hello. There's no doubt this isn't going to be easy to find. That is going to be the biggest problem is how far was it from me but I do have a good idea how far it was. I think in my search area I'm covering farther then it was. This meteor wasn't shooting like some would. It was falling like if it was dropped out of a plane. So this is why there wasn't no sonic boom. I was so close to it I waited to see if I could hear it hit the ground. If I just marked the spot in the trees where it fall I would of already found it but now the search area is bigger. I been using my gps so I can keep a record of every place I walked. And I know how big it was. Like if it was a baseball or golf ball I may not even seen it. So it's no doubt of the sizes it is pretty big. I'm not even using a detector the crater should be easy to spot. I know time is of the essence. So far it's just been light rain in the area. If it hit in a wash then the next big rain it's lost. Now I only need to find it to verify what I've seen is true.

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Just because it was falling from the sky doesn't mean it will make a significant impact. Not likely to be any crater unless it was huge and moving really fast. Good luck finding what you think you saw. Dennis

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Someone pointed this website out

http://thelatestworl...s.blogspot.com/

where people report fireballs. The one i saw was 8/28/15 about 6:15am. at this site two people reported seeing the same one a saw. Mary said she saw it fall behind a mountain. i think i know which mountain. If I could meet up with her that could tell me how far away it was from me. Also 5 peope reported it on this site. www.amsmeteors.org

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