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Short note on the Peekshill car- crasher meteorit


The "Car-Crasher" Peekskill Meteorite

by Christopher E. Spratt

The following report on the fall of the Peekskill
meteorite last October 9th, 1992, which crashed through the
trunk of a parked car, is based on published reports in the
Peekskill Herald newspaper; the Bulletin of the Global
Volcanism Network as published by the Smithsonian
Institution (Washington, D. C.); the publication IMPACT
published by the Society of Meteoritophiles; Sky & Telescope
(December, 1992); Martin Beech in Astronomy Now (December,
1992); Peter Brown in IMO (December, 1992), which is the
Journal of the International Meteor Organization; and
private conversations with one of the meteorite's buyers,
Marlin Cilz of Malta, Montana.

Ms. Michelle Knapp, an 18 year old high-school student
living in the New York suburb of Peekskill, which lies 40
miles north of New York City, was watching television the
evening of Friday October 9th, when a 12.4 kilogram stony
meteorite plunged through the rear wing and tail-light of
her 1980 Chevy Malibu car and cratered the driveway below.
She reported. "Suddenly I heard a loud bang and thought it
was a collision between two cars. I looked outside to see
the wing totally demolished." Initially, "she [Michelle] was
afraid to go outside," said her mother.

The impact sound and the fireball's sonic boom caused
windows to shake around the neighbourhood.

Local police called to the scene first reported the
car's damage looked like "criminal mischief by a very strong
male". However once the police realized the true nature of
the incident, they quickly notified scientists at nearby
Columbia University who initially identified the stone as an
ordinary chondrite.

The sulphur smelling 30 x 18 x 11.5 cm meteorite, still
warm to the touch, was preceded by a bright fireball
observed by people from the states of New York,
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and North
Carolina as it travelled northward (WSW to ENE). Several
videos, (some showing the event lasted more than 17 seconds)
of the fireball were shown on television. Descriptions by
eyewitnesses and published in the Bulletin of the Global
Volcanism Network Volume 17, for September, 1992, varied
including; "a bright green streak"; a "green-yellow ball
with orange flames"; an "orange head with blusish tail"; an
"aqua-blue light-show"; and "like fireworks". Green was most
often reported earlier in the path with orange towards the
end. Visual magnitude estimates ranged from -8 to -15.
Visual descriptions of "spalling" or "breaking into smaller
objects", of "irregularly-shaped bright objects trailing
behind the fireball, and of "an explosion in the sky" and
falling debris reported by airline pilots indicate that the
fireball fragmented near its endpoint. Video pictures show
up to twenty separate fragments being visible near the end
of the fireball's path. Suggestions made at the time by the
media that the event was part of the Draconid meteor shower
are considered to be unfounded.

There may have been additional fireballs occuring within
in an hour of the main event as reports of dozens of bright
fireballs were received by investigators. Ground paths of
these events have yet to be determined.

The meteorite itself has a black fusion crust. The
leading edge of the stone was broken off to show the light
grey interior with its black shock veins. The reddish-brown
colour of the car's paintwork is fused onto one side and
white marks from the car's underside are on the opposite
side. Small pieces of the meteorite broken off from the
meteorite's main mass by the impact were collected by some
of the local people.

The meteorite was initially identified as an L6
chondrite by Dr. William Menke of the Lamont-Doherty
Geological Observatory of Columbia University, based in
Palisades, New York. Further analysis has been undertaken
by Dr. Martin Prinz at the American Museum of Natural
History who indicates that the meteorite is probably a
highly metamorphic H-type chondrite. Unfortunately, Ms.
Knapp had refused to allow any long-term studies of the
object as, within hours of the fall being reported museum
curators, meteorite dealers and private collectors were all
bidding on the rock. Ms. Knapp finally sold the object for
a considerable sum of money to a consortium of three
meteorite trader/collectors, who also bought her car which
she had originally purchased for $100.00. According to
another anonymous dealer, the notoriety surrounding the
fall, quickly drove the price of the stone up to a sum that
was five times what the stone would normally bring.

Both car and the remaining mass (a portion of the
meteorite has since been cut for distribution) was on
display at the February 1993 Tucson Mineral Show.

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