[meteorite-list] Another NJ Find/Fall?

[Pete Pete]

Greetings, all,

Something to make the NJ story a little more intriguing...note the reference 
to the two small green stones embedded...

Cheers,
Pete



http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/NEWS/701080417/1001

North Brunswick object may be alien intruder
Home News Tribune Online 01/8/07
By DAVID STEGON
STAFF WRITER
dstegon at thnt.com
NORTH BRUNSWICK — Maybe Marvin the Martian dropped it off on a jaunt across 
the galaxy, or maybe it's just another ordinary rock, but a township couple 
believes the black, gray, gold and green baseball-sized stone that 
mysteriously appeared in their yard about a week ago may be from outer 
space.



Joe and Kathleen Marascio hope they are the latest area residents to get a 
visitor from outside the Earth's gravitational pull after a Freehold 
Township couple discovered the rock that crashed into the side of their home 
last week was a meteorite.

"Let's not mischaracterize this," said Joe Marascio, who has lived in North 
Brunswick for 35 years. "I know the chances that this came from outer space 
are slim, but all I know is that it looks like nothing I've ever seen on 
Earth."

Joe Marascio said his wife was outside with the couple's husky-mix dog, 
Bear, on Dec. 30. Kathleen Marascio was tying Bear to a tree the couple has 
in their yard when she heard a whoosh and thump to her right.

Thinking nothing of it, she continued to play with the dog. A few nights 
later, the couple was watching the local news when they heard the story from 
Freehold and Kathleen Marascio's memory was sparked.

"She told me what happened the other day so we went into the yard and looked 
for the rock," Joe Marascio said. "It was about half buried in the yard, but 
we pulled it out, and it looked like nothing we had ever seen."

The rock is roughly the size of a baseball and weighs about 2 1/2 pounds, 
Joe Marascio said. The object is mostly a light gray with slightly raised 
areas that are a dull polished black, he said. He said there are concave 
areas that appear yellow or gold and two smaller green stones embedded in 
the rest of the rock.

"It's looks like a combination of many things," Kathleen Marascio said.

Joe Marascio called professor J.S. Delaney at the Rutgers Geological 
Services and asked about the rock.

"He told me that over the past 25 years he gets a call or two a month from 
people thinking their rocks are from space," Marascio said. "He said of all 
the rocks he's seen, only two have actually been, so we know the chances are 
slim."

That does not mean the couple has lost hope. Marascio said he will learn 
today if the rock is from outer space after a series of tests are done.

In the case of the Freehold Township object, Rutgers University geologists 
Delaney, Gail Ashley and Claire Condie and independent metallurgist Peter 
Elliott determined it was an iron meteorite because of its density, magnetic 
properties, markings and coloration, The Associated Press reported Friday.

Of course, rocks from outer space are nothing new.

Donna Foust, who lives in Coudersport, Pa., said she found two rocks from 
outer space in the early '60s as a child. She heard of the case in Freehold 
Township and wondered if the objects she found long ago were similar to the 
meteorite that tested positive last week.

"When the rocks were originally tested, we were told that they contained 
only one element that is naturally found on Earth," Foust said, "but we 
never knew what the rest of it was. I wonder if all these rocks came from 
the same place."

The Marascios wonder as well.

David Stegon:

(732) 565-7251;

dstegon at thnt.com

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