The majority of meteors don't make it to Earth's surface in one piece, let alone in pieces of any size, so they are rare and valuable finds when they do. As you may have seen on the Science Channel, meteorite hunting is quite a thing. Some people collect them on the side, while others make a career (or obsession) out of it. And then there is musician, inventor and engineer Clair Omar Musser. Clair began collecting meteorites in his 30s, eventually amassing a collection that weighed over half a ton (meteorites are often rich in iron). But Clair didn't let his hoard collect dust on the shelf, but instead forged almost half of it into a xylophone, an instrument he had been playing his whole life. He dubbed his creation a "celestaphone," and it now sits on display in the Rhythm Discovery Center in Indianapolis. Not only are the keys made from meteoritic material, the entire support structure is as well. You could say everything but the bolts fell out of the sky.
Recently the Rhythm Discovery Center took the celestaphone out of its display and played it, to record its music for posterity. The folks at Everything Sounds have a lovely excerpt of it for you. Take a listen.
More news from outer space:
- Great view of of asteroid 2012 DA14's flyby on Friday as seen from the Canary Islands. [VIDEO]
- Torino Scale is NASA's version of the terror alert system for hazard posed by asteroid and comet impacts.
- Nice, clear explanation for why meteors explode in the atmosphere on their way to crashing to the ground.
- Could Bruce Willis really save us from certain doom? More awesomeness from the Journal of Special Physics Topics out of the University of Leicester.
- Researchers from the Keck Institute for Space Studies propose to bring an asteroid into the moon's orbit to study it up close.
- Data from NASA's Dawn mission causes astronomers to rethink the formation history of the second most massive asteroid in the Solar System. [VIDEO]
- In other news of objects flying overhead, why air traffic control is still not completely computerized.
- Fantastic NOVA special on how satellites enable us to see the Earth as one large interacting system.
And to keep you from OD'ing on rocky bodies, here's some non-space geek for you:
- First grader programs her own computer game. What were you doing when you were six?
- Next time you're enjoying some rigatoni, stop to appreciate the mathematics of your meal.
- Baby Komodo dragons have to climb up trees when they hatch or their mothers will eat them.
- Paeloclimatologists use animal urine as a proxy for past weather conditions in central and southern Africa.
Keep your eyes on the sky. @Summer_Ash
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All of these links and not one mention of Comet Ison?
It is supposed to be incredible in November of this year and if calculations are correct it will be visible in broad daylite.
Yeah, you are right. Let's all run outside right now in February and look up for the comet that is arriving in November.
ISON may or may not live up to its hype. It will pass extremely close to the Sun before swinging back into view in November. It is quite possible that it will disintegrate during its pass with the Sun, as Comet Elenin did last year. So let's not get too overenthusiastic yet.
Run baby Komodo,run!
So republicans are not the only species to eat their young.
Really? How many are killed via abortion each year? It would seem the Left is much more dangerous to the young than Republicans. Duh.
Interesting that you apparently think that only members of "the Left" have abortions.
Regardless, the (snarky) comment referred to "eating" their young, to which comment a response about abortion is a non sequitur.
The math on the meteorite xylophone is a decimal off. Not a big thing except in maybe a geek piece. He emassed 1300 pounds of meteorite according to the show. That's a little over 0.6 tons not 6 tons. When you write for geeks, you have to expect them to run the proof.
2,000 pounds/ ton
http://rhythmdiscoverycenter.org/onlinecollection/mussers-celestaphone/
Donated by Perry and Nancy Preusch
Inspired by Halley’s Comet, the Celestaphone was constructed by Clair O. Musser as a combination of his interests in music, astronomy, meteorology, metallurgy, meteoritics, acoustics, musical physics, and holography. Musser began collecting meteorites in 1936, continuing to acquire them for over four decades from all parts of the world. He collected over 1,388 pounds of the rare space material, and used 678 pounds from his collection to manufacture this ‘one-of-a-kind’ Celestaphone.
After being scientifically analyzed, the meteorites were classified for use in the bars, frame, or resonators based on the elemental content. In addition to the 30 ‘Meteoritic Tone Bars,’ over 353 parts were machined for the resonators, frame, and other portions of the instrument. Except for the bolts, all metal parts of the instrument are of ‘meteoric metal.’
The Celestaphone weighs 83 pounds, including 12 pounds for the bars, 51 pounds for the frame and resonators, and 20 pounds for its base and cover. Tuned to A=440, it has a two and a half-octave range, G to C, beginning on G below the treble-clef staff. All bars are 28mm wide and range from 29.3 cm to 11.8 cm in length. Due to the long sustain of the bars, there is a pedal for muffling the instrument. It can be played with mallets, or bowed for music that truly sounds ‘celestial.’
You're absolutely right. Too many numbers floating in my head after Friday's events! Fixing it now...
Q & A: How could a meteor *explode*?
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2009/10/28/q-a-how-could-a-meteor-explode/
The figure of 1,000 tonnes (metric tons) seem low by a factor of about 16.
With only M and V needed we should find Kinetic Energy = (1/2) * M * V^2 easily?
There are many conceptual and factual error at the above link and it in it coments that it is not worth looking at again.
Meteors (and other things) explode when there is the rapid release of high pressure gas into the surrounding environment.
For a comet or meteor burning up in the Earth's atmosphere this can happen one of three ways:
gas bubbles (from stuff that vaporizes easily) in the body of the meteor can gain enough pressure from heating to burst the body of the meteor, or
components of the meteor or comet can react while being heated, rapidly generating a lot of gas, or
the bulk of the meteor can get so hot the entire thing essentially 'boils over' in one big messy flash.
When it comes down to it, the kinetic energy of the meteor was 0.5(mass)(velocity**2), which is A LOT in this case. All that energy gets converted into heat either by vaporizing stone on the way down, blowing up the thing in the air, or digging a big crater when it hits the Earth. Fortunately, it blew up too high to do much damage.
The great and large meteor, is ultimate made of N molecules, working down to the resulting temperature is beyond the internet capabilities.
The other half of the energy equation Kinetic Energy = (1/2) mv^2 is = 3/2 kT, but temperature is only meaningful as 'average' kinetic energy.
The interesting thermodynamics exercise is to determine that 'average' temperature, and then perhaps realize that under somewhat ideal conditions that then entire mass of the meteorite could be vaporized, at least for a short time. Such is the energy involved. But if we have the capacity to understand how matter was distributed from super-nova's into solar system, the most energetic event we know of (big bang aside), then we can understand how the far flung asteroids, meteors, planets got where they are, and make it easier to understand that that energy is conserved and is seen when they land on Earth.
…
Ideal Gas Law – Supplemental Pages - Brabson - 9/4/12
http://physics.indiana.edu/~brabson/p310/idealgaslaw.html
Temperature in the Microscopic Picture: Interestingly, an ideal gas may be described as a collection of non-interacting objects in a box. These independent molecules are not sticky. That is, there is no long range force and consequent potential energy between them. They do have kinetic energy, they bounce elastically off the walls of the box, and when allowed to collide elastically, they will share their kinetic energy with each other. Also, their collisions with the walls exert pressure on the walls of the box. When you add energy to a gas by doing work on the gas or by adding heat energy, the temperature increases. Not surprisingly, then, temperature is simply related to the internal energy of the gas, that is to the sum of the kinetic energies of the molecules in the gas. From the microscopic view temperature is proportional to the average kinetic energy of a single molecule of the gas. That is:
3/2 kT = <(1/2) mv^2> = <KE per molecule> (for a monatomic gas).
Again, k is Boltzmann’s constant, k = 1.38 x 10-23 JK-1(molecule)-1. The total internal energy of the gas of N molecules is then
U = N<(1/2) mv^2> = 3/2 NkT = 3/2 nRT
and for a small change in internal energy, dU = 3/2 Nk dT = 3/2 nR dT. Notice that both U depends only on the temperature of the gas, not on the pressure or volume.
Bill Finds them in his Sleep!
This book documents the adventures (Political, Funding and Endurance), of locating source meteorites accumulated in blue ice sheets over millions of years. Yes! Many people had to get used to the idea that low gravity moon and planets have in the past ejected materials that is only now getting to earth. (For major example, the 65 million year old collision wiping out the dinosaurs was found to have been created 95 million years earlier.)
Dr. William Cassidy, emeritus faculty of the Department of Geology and Planetary Science, has just had his book, "Meteorites, Ice, and Antartica: A Personal Account" published by Cambridge University Press.
Bill Cassidy led meteorite recovery expeditions in Antarctica for 15 years. His searches resulted in the collection of thousands of meteorite specimens from the ice. This fascinating story is a first hand account of his field experiences on the US Antarctic Search for Meteorites Project, which he carried out with an international team of scientists. Cassidy describes this hugely successful field program in Antarctica and its influence on our understanding of the moon, Mars and the asteroid belt. He describes the hardships and dangers of fieldwork in a hostile environment, as well as the appreciation he developed for the beauty of the place. In the final chapters he speculates on the results of the trips and the future research to which they might lead.
Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-25872-3; (hb).
ANSMET is the group that now manages the collection of if over 20,000 finds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSMET
Recovery of a meteorite in Antarctica
Location of meteorites collected across the Transantartic Mountains
ANSMET (ANtarctic Search for METeorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for meteorites that have originally fallen on the extensive high-altitude ice fields throughout Antarctica. Such meteorites are quickly covered by subsequent snowfall and begin a centuries-long journey traveling "downhill" across the Antarctic continent while embedded in a vast sheet of flowing ice. Portions of such flowing ice can be halted by natural barriers such as the Transantarctic Mountains. Subsequent wind erosion of the motionless ice brings trapped meteorites back to the surface once more where they may be collected. This process concentrates meteorites in a few specific areas to much higher concentrations than they are normally found everywhere else. The contrast of the dark meteorites against the white snow, and lack of terrestrial rocks on the ice, makes such meteorites relatively easy to find. However, the vast majority of such ice-embedded meteorites eventually slide undiscovered into the ocean.
While the vast majority (>90%) of the meteorites found are ordinary chondrites, ANSMET has provided many rare meteorites, including many of the known lunar and martian meteorites such as ALH84001.
Weren't they at one time selling stars to people and they could have their own special star that they could name. I think we oughta find out who owns that star and sue the pants off of them.
Great post. But here's the thing.
In 1968 I was in a high school marimba band. I owned a Musser marimba. 45 years later I am building a planetarium. I spend a lot of time in southern Mexico where the marimba was invented, with archaeoastronomers studying ancient Maya myths. Maddow, meteors, Musser, marimbas, Mexico, Maya and me. Synchronicity!
Cool!
Great post. But here's the thing.
In 1968 I was in a high school marimba band. I owned a Musser marimba. 10 years later, I was in the store room of the Metropolitan Museum, looking at a lithophone, a stone xylophone. 35 years later I am building a planetarium and I spend a lot of time in southern Mexico, home of the marimba, with archaeoastronomers studying the celestial basis of Maya myths. Maddow, marimba, Musser, meteors, Met, Mexico, Maya, and me. Synchronicity!
It's still cool.
(Sorry for the double post - bit tricky to register first time. Feel free to delete one)
The latest info from NASA was that the object weighed about 10,000 metric tons, exploded 12-15 miles above the earth. They estimate the size to have been somewhere around 50 feet or more in diameter. I'm looking forward to analysis of the fragments to see what type of meteor it was. Orbital tracking shows it originated in the asteroid belt, rather than being a near earth asteroid that follows an orbit similar to the earth.