[meteorite-list] GOLD and DIAMOND Meteorites!!!

[Jerry A. Wallace]

Met Cent Folks,

Well, ya'll got my imagination a'churnin' again.

Whatta Whopper of a Concept. And who's to say that it couldn't happen.
It's really just a matter of scale and chance. Long odds, granted, but we
have already found stranger surprises in this old universe.

I can almost smell the headlines now...

REUTERS: 05.06.04, 06:30 AM ET
Scientists Using Hubble Telescope Take Pictures of Humongous Collision
of Giant Diamond Asteroid and Huge Gold Nugget Asteroid...

Scientists at NASA this morning released details of what is believed to 
be the
first observed collision between asteroids composed of a precious metal and
a gemstone. An asteroid weighing approximately 210 tons, composed almost
entirely of 24 karat gold, and traveling in an long elliptical orbit 
around Neptune,
was photographed as it collided with another asteroid that is thought to 
have
entered our solar system coming from somewhere in the vicinity of the
Andromeda Galaxy.

It has now been confirmed that the composition of the second asteroid was
actually just one monolithic piece of crystallized carbon, otherwise 
known as
'diamond'. Its weight has been estimated to have been approximately 140 
metric
tons before impact. The scientists have estimated that the force of the 
impact has
shattered and crumbled the large diamond asteroid into billions of 
pieces ranging
in size from mere microns weighing only milligrams, to pieces that weigh 
perhaps
10 pounds or more. Various instruments have now analysized the quality 
of the
diamond to be blue/white with almost no inclusions.

The effect of the forces generated by the collision on the gold asteroid 
was to
melt the entire asteroid into a liquid state. The pieces of diamond were 
almost
immediately encapsulated into a molten golden matrix which soon cooled 
in the
frigidity of space. One noted scientist at NASA explained that the 
resulting
conglomeration of pieces from the two merged asteroids has resulted in what
is known as "impact melt breccia". He further described the millions of  
pieces
as being analogous to a rare type of meteorite known here on earth as 
"pallasites".

One senior scientist involved in the Hubble project has calculated the 
expected
trajectory of the "jewelry cloud"- as it has been referred to by the 
'girls of NASA'.
According to his calculations, the expected orbit will intersect earth's 
orbit every
three years and should produce some spectacular fireworks in our night 
skies for
approximately five nights during each of the events. Due to the angle at 
which the
intersection with the cloud will occur, it is expected that many of the 
meteors will
survive their fiery plummet through our atmosphere.


A related news story three years later...

L.A. Times: May 8, 2007    7:21 AM  Pacific
Stars Are Seen Shining at Night

In what can only be described as a "Stars Chasing Pieces of Stars" scenario,
Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor were seen leading throngs of Hollywood
luminaries and celebrities through the Hollywood Hills throughout the night.
With a flashlight in one hand and a metal detector in the other, the 
stars were
intent on finding one of the many thousands of gold encased diamonds 
that were
seen to be falling all over our planet for the last several nights. The 
spectacular
meteor shower is expected to last for two more nights and will not be 
seen again
for three more years.

A dealer in Italy was quoted as saying, "Bah. Prices in ruin again. 
Enough bad they
were already. Never good again. Damn diamond fairies steal the smiles 
from the
struck ones that have gold. BAH. BAH."

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All ya'll have a fine Sunday evening,

Jerry Wallace
Odessa, Texas