io9: meteorites

Catch the Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:30:00 PDT

Every summer, the Earth passes through the space wreckage left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. And you know what that means: Meteorites. Early Tuesday morning, after the moon goes down around 1:30 AM, is the best time to see the bits of junk burning up beautifully in the Earth's atmosphere. Everybody knows space explosions are romantic, so stay up late tonight with your sweetie(s) and contemplate astrophysics as you watch hunks of rocks and ice flare up and die, miles over your heads. [Space.com] Image via Marylandweather.com.

Meteorite vs. Dinosaur Poop — Who Wins?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:00:00 PDT

On the auction block at Bonham's last week were two strange items: a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the dawn of the universe (left), and two chunks of fossilized dinosaur poop (right). Which do you think sold for the most money?

Weirdly, it was the dinosaur poop, a relatively common item among fossil hounds that normally would sell for about $1000 U.S. But this time, it got snatched up for nearly twice that, while the meteorite didn't sell at all. Maybe that was because the beautiful rock (a slice of which you are seeing above) started bids at over $2 million U.S. Made of palasite, a common metorite material, the big rock was found in China. Supposedly the owner has plans to sell it to a private party.

Dinosaur poop chunks, known as coprolites, are so common that you can even buy jewelry made out of them.

Dinosaur Feces - 1; 4.5 MYO Meteorite - 0 [Environmental Graffiti]

Witness The Evidence For Life On Mars

charliejane — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:30:00 PST

This Martian meteorite, which goes on display today at the Natural History Museum in London, crashed in Egypt nearly a hundred years ago. It was part of the great Martian rockfall of 1911, which started with the appearance of a cloud and some detonations. Local residents were terrified when they were hit with a rain of 40 Martian rock fragments, weighing around 22 pounds. Scientists cracked open a piece of the Nakhla fragment last year and found a carbon-rich substance, evidence that microbes may have lived there. [Image by Cate Gillon/Getty Images]