Cafe Sci Orlando announcements for 2011-07: "Meteorite Stories"
Chad MILLER
* Topic, "Meteorite Stories"
* 100 years since Nakhla meteorite
Topic, "Meteorite Stories"
Hi. This month we will have a fascinating discussion at our Cafe Sci at
7PM on Wednesday 6 July, at Taste, in College Park.
Meteorites are pieces of the cosmos that literally fall out of the sky
into our lives. They are scientifically invaluable as samples of
asteroids, our Moon, and the planet Mars. How they are recovered is the
subject of some very human stories of luck, random chance, and lively
entrepreneurial spirit. Dr Britt will relate some of the more
interesting (or larcenous) meteorite recoveries and teach the audience
to keep their eyes open for random rocks from the sky.
Dr. Daniel Britt is a Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at
the Department of Physics, University of Central Florida. He was
educated at the University of Washington and Brown University,
receiving a Ph.D. from Brown in 1991. He has had a varied career
including service in the US Air Force as an ICBM missile launch officer
and an economist for Boeing before going into planetary sciences. He
has served on the science teams of two NASA missions, Mars Pathfinder
and Deep Space 1. He was the project manager for the camera on Mars
Pathfinder and has built hardware for all the NASA Mars landers. He
currently does research on the physical properties and mineralogy of
asteroids, comets, the Moon, and Mars under several NASA grants. Honors
include 5 NASA Achievement Awards, election as a Fellow of the
Meteoritical Society, and an asteroid named after him; 4395 DanBritt.
He was recently elected President of the Division for Planetary
Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. He lives in Orlando with
his wife Judith. They have two sons, ages 15 and 20.
Directions
Taste
717 W. Smith Street
Orlando, United States
32804
Taste is near the corner of Princeton Street (really Smith Street after
the fork) and Edgewater Drive, so about 2 minutes from I-4 to parking.
One can park on the street or in the parking lot behind Taste.
* From Downtown and south, drive north ("east") on I-4 through
downtown. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn
left/west.
* From Altamonte Springs and north, drive south ("west") on I-4
toward downtown Orlando. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and
turn right/west.
From I-4, drive a few blocks to Edgewater Drive. At the intersection,
you should see a orange building ahead of you, labeled "Taste". Park on
the street or behind Taste.
100 years since Nakhla meteorite
Though the timing of this month's speaker is unrelated, 100 years ago
this week, a meteorite fell to earth in a dramatic way. Many people in
Nakhla region of Alexandria, Egypt witnessed an explosion overhead
about 9AM, and more than twenty pounds of igneous rock crash into the
Earth. The dozens of fragments of meteor embedded up to a meter deep in
the ground. Chemical and structural analysis have shown that the
meteorite was ejected off of one of three volcanic regions of Mars,
1,300 million years ago by an asteroid impact. The Smithsonian
Institution currently holds several pieces on public display.