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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 18,2006
STATE
New radar technology unearths meteorite below field
BY ROXANA HEGEMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREENSBURG — Scientists were excited when they pulled a 154-pound meteorite from deep below a Kansas wheat field, but what got them most electrified was the way they unearthed it.
The team Monday uncovered the find 4 feet under a meteorite-strewn field using new ground-penetrating radar technology that someday might be used on Mars.
It was that technology that pinpointed the site and proved for the first time that it could be used to find objects buried deep in the ground and to make an accurate three-dimensional image of them.
"It validates the technique so we can use something similar to that instrument when we go to Mars," said Patricia Reiff, director of the
Rice Space Institute.
Such GPR systems had been used in the past to locate smaller meteorites through the ice in Antarctica. But until the Kansas dig, the technology had not been successfully used for ground detection in heavy soils — like on Mars — to find meteorites or water there.
The dig was likely the most documented excavation yet of a meteorite find, with researchers painstakingly using brushes and hand tools to preserve evidence of the impact trail and to date the event of the meteorite strike. Soil samples also were bagged and tagged and organic material preserved for dating purposes.
"When we find a piece of meteorite, each one is a new sentence we add to the book to understand the evolution of the solar system," said Essam Heggy, planetary scientist at the Johnson Space Center's
Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
Even before they had the pallasite meteorite out of the ground, the scientific experts at the site were able to debunk prevailing wisdom that the spectacular Brenham meteorite fall occurred 20,000 years ago. Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts that date closer to 10,000 years ago.
"Weknow it is recent," said Carolyn Sumners, director of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as she surveyed progress on the dig. "Native Americans could have seen it."
The expedition was put together by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and led by meteorite hunters Steve Arnold and Philip Mani. Johnson Space Center's Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Rice Space Institute at Rice University and George Observatory in Houston also sent researchers.
Workers from the Houston Museum of Natural Science toil under a tent as they uncover a meteorite in a wheat field near Greensburg Monday.
Charlie Riedel/ASSOCIATED PRESS
steel cable.
Fewer than 1 percent of the meteorites discovered on earth are pallasite meteorites, known for their crystals embedded in iron, Mani said.
The Brenham field was discovered in 1882. Scientists have since traced pieces of the shower as far away as Indian mounds in Ohio, indicating the meteorites were traded as pieces of jewelry and ceremonial artifacts.
--are facing a deadlock in this election," said the Arab League's U.N. representative Yahya Mahmassani. "We look forward to the group of Latin American and Caribbean states to find a solution to this impasse, with the acquiescence and acceptance of the two candidates."
The site was largely forgotten in recent decades until Arnold and Mani leased eight square miles of it and began looking deep below the surface. More than 15,000 pounds of meteorites have been recovered from the area.
This week's find will end up as part of a new exhibit on comets, meteors and asteroids at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The museum will pay about $50,000 for it, Summers said. It is valued at more than $100,000, she said.
Sophisticated metal detectors at the site initially detected what had been thought to be the largest pallasite meteorite ever discovered. But ground-penetrating radar showed that the object was only a
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WORLD
Guatemala, Venezuela vie for U.N. seat Countries reject compromise for Latin American position on Security Council
BY NICK WADHAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITEDNATIONS—Guatemala failed repeatedly to muster the necessary votes to beat out Venezuela for a Latin American seat on the
U. N. Security Council, prompting diplomats on Tuesday to demand a compromise candidate.
Both have so far refused, and the U.N. General Assembly scheduled yet more rounds of voting on Thursday by its 192 member nations. That left a day off for Latin American nations to try to find a solution.
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Yet neither Venezuela nor Guatemala appeared willing to drop out of the election.
In the 22nd round of voting, Guatemala garnered 102 votes to Venezuela's 77. That result, similar to that of many of the previous rounds during the last two days, was 23 votes short of the two-thirds needed to win, and it now appeared that neither would be able to bridge the gap.
Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Francisco Arias Cardenas complained that the United States pressed countries worldwide to prevent Venezuela from winning a seat on the 15-nation council.
"It's obvious that the General Assembly is sharply divided and we
The results were seen as a setback for Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, who had lobbied hard in capitals around the world, offering millions of petrodollars in aid.
"We are fighting against the first power of the world, the owners of the universe," Arias Cardenas said. "We're happy, we're strong and we will continue."
Diplomats said his bombastic speech to the General Assembly last month, when Chavez railed against the United States and called President Bush "the devil," may have hurt Venezuela's chances.
The vote, however, also reflected the ambivalence toward Guatemala. Washington's preferred candidate. Even Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal had earlier expressed discomfort about the highly public U.S. campaign against Venezuela and in support of Guatemala.
After Monday's balloting, Rosenthal said his nation was an "independent voice" that would vote according to its own policies.
Roy Chaderton, the Venezuelan diplomat who played a key role in his country's campaign for the seat, said the results were only a minor setback in the long struggle against U.S. efforts to dominate international affairs.
The record number of ballots for a Security Council seat occurred in 1979, when the General Assembly held 154 unsuccessful votes to choose between Cuba and Colombia. Mexico was then put forward and won in the 155th round.
"This battle will prepare us for another battle within the international community," Chaderton told Venezuelan state television Sunday.
Possible other candidates include Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Get 'em while they're hot!
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