near miss with meteorite, your line?

[squeek12]

I didn't think this was OOT noteworthy, but to satisfy a friend, I'll write it up.

So I'm on my way to Harrah's New Orleans, which is only a 5 minute drive or so from my house. I come up to a red light about halfway there in a part of town consisting maily of empty warehouses and a couple of clubs. As, I'm sitting there waiting for the light to turn green, a brighly glowing object streaks across the sky about 100 yards or so in front of me and disappears behind a few buildings.

Now at first glimpse, I thought it was just a shooting star. But I soon realized that what I had seen was way too close and big and must have been an actually meteorite that survived the atmosphere. It seemed to be white in the center with a blue glow on the outside. I'd guess that it was in between the size of a baseball and a volleyball. This all happened in a fraction of a second, so it's possible that my mind somehow created the details, but I'm positive it wasn't just your average shooting star. It was quite a surreal moment, and I'm disappointed that my view was obstructed, and that I didn't get to witness impact.

So my questions are:

How rare is this? Am I one of very few who ever get to witness an event like this?

I thought about going to search for it, but this area of town is kinda of shady. Should I have?

If I had searched for it, and found it, how valuable would it have been? I assume there is a market for these things, but have no idea what king of $ it would have fetched.

[CharlieDontSurf]

pretty valuable ive heard

[Dominic]

I would've found the meteorite, touched it's glowing surface, and then grown some weird space fungus all over my body.

But that's just me.

[squeek12]

[ QUOTE ]
I would've found the meteorite, touched it's glowing surface, and then grown some weird space fungus all over my body.

But that's just me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes Dom, but that's b/c you have experienced multiple lifetimes of enjoyable experiences, and have no reason to fear death. I, on the other hand, have yet to bag even a single pornstar, or meet either Kurt Russell or Goldie Hawn.

[Full Metal]

Meteor Bert: Well, it aint a meteor.
Joe Dirt: Yeah it is. It came out of the sky.
Meteor Bert: Well I'm sure it did but it aint no meteor. It's a big ol frozen chunk uh [censored].
Joe Dirt: What!
Meteor Bert: Oh yeah, see them airplanes they dump their toilets 36,000 feet. The stuff freezes and falls to earth. We call 'em bowing bombs
[chomps teeth]
Joe Dirt: no that cant be. Thats not what it is
Meteor Bert: oh, afraid so. See that peanut? Dead giveaway.
Joe Dirt: Uhhh, no, thats a space peanut.
Meteor Bert: No, afraid not. That just a big ol' frozen chunk of poopy.
Studio manager: Dude you were eating off it!

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would've found the meteorite, touched it's glowing surface, and then grown some weird space fungus all over my body.

But that's just me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes Dom, but that's b/c you have experienced multiple lifetimes of enjoyable experiences, and have no reason to fear death. I, on the other hand, have yet to bag even a single pornstar, or meet either Kurt Russell or Goldie Hawn.

[/ QUOTE ]

well, maybe you've met a porn star and banged Kurt Russell. That's a start.

[Tron]

[ QUOTE ]
Meteor Bert: Well, it aint a meteor.
Joe Dirt: Yeah it is. It came out of the sky.
Meteor Bert: Well I'm sure it did but it aint no meteor. It's a big ol frozen chunk uh [censored].
Joe Dirt: What!
Meteor Bert: Oh yeah, see them airplanes they dump their toilets 36,000 feet. The stuff freezes and falls to earth. We call 'em bowing bombs
[chomps teeth]
Joe Dirt: no that cant be. Thats not what it is
Meteor Bert: oh, afraid so. See that peanut? Dead giveaway.
Joe Dirt: Uhhh, no, thats a space peanut.
Meteor Bert: No, afraid not. That just a big ol' frozen chunk of poopy.
Studio manager: Dude you were eating off it!

[/ QUOTE ]

NICE!

[krishan]

[ QUOTE ]

If I had searched for it, and found it, how valuable would it have been? I assume there is a market for these things, but have no idea what king of $ it would have fetched.

[/ QUOTE ]


I saw a TV show about a meteor hunter who collected and sold old meteors. He said 200$ per ounce.

Krishan

[BassMasterK]

I think the value has a lot to do with the size, not just on a weight level, but also how well the meteorite survived the impact on landing. I'm 99% positive I saw something on PBS where a guy was saying that once they pass a certain size, the price starts to go up exponentially because they are more rare.

Regarding finding it....it could be a lot further away than it appeared. Back in the early 90's, I was hanging out with a friend outside and I look up and this huge green ball with a green streaking trail falls out of the sky. I had seen 'falling stars' before, but this was different because of the size and closeness of it. It appeared so close I thought it probably fell within 100 miles of my town (Portland, OR). I read in the news the next day many people reported seeing a green meteorite crash down in a lake just outside of San Jose. If it DID come down in town, then other people would have already found it. But if your positive it was really close and you have time to burn it won't hurt anything for you to poke around where you think it could be.

[djoyce003]

they are worth a lot..i'd have gone looking for it, it's probably still smoking.