Meteorite examined by grad student,
professor
By Brad Ramsay
Summer Reporter
The night sky was lit up with a brilliant fireball
that crash-landed into Canada; fragments of this fireball have made their
way to Purdue to be studied.
The fragments were discovered by outdoorsmen Jim
Brook, while he was driving. He noticed the black fragments lying on the
ice and suspected that they were from a meteorite.
Taking careful consideration not to contaminate the
fragments, Brook put plastic bags on his hands to pick up the pieces.
What Brook found was sent out to four different laboratories
to be studied in places such as England, Canada, Chicago and West Lafayette.
Jon Friedrich, graduate student, has the opportunity
to study part of the fragments through a type of research that he developed
himself using a special spectrometer. He is collaborating with Michael
Lipschutz, professor of chemistry.
Friedrich said his research is done through destructive
analysis, meaning once he has completed the process there will be no more
of his sample left.
The goal of studying the carbonaceous chondrites
or the meteorite sample is the hopes of coming to a greater understanding
of what the solar system was like when it was first formed, said Friedrich.
While studying the sample one must take special care
not to contaminate it by letting it come in contact with the outside air.
The sample is kept in a clean room to prevent this from happening.
Friedrich said he has to wear a bunny suit, which
is plastic and covers him from head to toe. The suit will keep particles
away from his body and from getting into the clean room and contaminating
the sample.
The reason why Friedrich avoids direct contact with
the meteor is because of the small amount of trace elements he is studying
in the sample. Friedrich said these elements he is studying are extremely
small.
It is like studying a single teaspoon of water in
a swimming pool. If someone were to touch the sample it would be like
adding a 50- gallon drum of salt to that single teaspoon and skew the
measurement.
Friedrich said it was a great opportunity to be on
the initial examination team and he was excited about studying the meteorites.
The last time similar meteorites had fallen to the
earth in comparable condition to the one Friedrich and Lipschutz are studying
was 30 years ago. Shortly before the Apollo 11 mission left for the moon,
the asteroid, Llendé fell in Mexico.
What makes the finding of carbonaceous chondrites
so exciting is that they rarely make it all the way to earth, said Friedrich.
Generally, they get burnt up in the atmosphere on the way to earth.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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