[meteorite-list] World's Leading Meteorite Experts Convene in Tucson Aug. 13 - 17

[Ron Baalke]

http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/35/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=14067

World's Leading Meteorite Experts Convene in Tucson Aug. 13 - 17
University of Arizona
July 27, 2007

N O T A E

Contact Information
A.J. Timothy Jull
520-621-6816
jull at email.arizona.edu 

Timothy D. Swindle
520-621-4128
tswindle at lpl.arizona.edu 

Related Web sites
MetSoc 2007 <http://metsoc2007.org>
Program and science abstracts <http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2007>

About 350 meteorite experts are expected to convene in Tucson for the
70th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society Aug. 13 - 17.
Coincidentally, this week also promises to be one of the best Perseid
meteor shower shows seen from Tucson in years, say University of Arizona
scientists hosting the event.

The Meteoritical Society is the world's largest organization devoted to
the study of meteorites and other extraterrestrial material. The
non-profit scholarly organization was founded in 1933 and now includes
members from 33 countries. They specialize in planetary science topics
that include meteorites, cosmic dust, asteroids and comets, natural
satellites, planets, impacts and the origins of the solar system. The
Society publishes the Meteoritical Bulletin, which records all known
meteorites, and a leading planetary science journal, Meteoritics and
Planetary Science, http://meteoritics.org/ which is edited at UA offices
in Tucson.

The 70th annual meeting opens during the night when the Perseids meteor
shower is at its maximum, during new moon. Meeting organizers will kick
off the conference with an Aug. 12 meteor shower viewing party (for
conferees only) under the dark skies at the meeting site, the JW
Marriott Starrpass Resort & Spa, 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.

Scientists will give more than 300 talks and poster presentations on
topics ranging from early solar system formation and planetary impact
cratering to astrobiology and results from the recent Genesis and
Stardust space missions, said UA geosciences Professor Timothy Jull,
chairman of the organizing committee. The complete program and abstracts
are online at Program and science abstracts
<http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2007>

Meeting highlights include:

# Wednesday, Aug. 15 - Peter Smith of UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory,
principal investigator for the Phoenix Scout Mission to Mars, will give
the society's Barringer Lecture. The Phoenix Mission is to launch Aug.
3. The spacecraft will land in Mars' northern arctic region in May 2008
and use a robotic arm and deck of sophisticated science instruments to
explore questions on Mars' potential to support life, the history of
water and changes in Martian climate.

    * Monday, Aug. 13 - A special session on Arizona's Meteor Crater
      (Barringer Crater) and other impact craters.
    * Monday, Aug. 13 - A special session on advances in dating the
      exposure ages and irradiation history of meteorites by the
      'cosmogenic radionuclides' they contain. Cosmogenic radionuclides
      are radioactive elements produced by cosmic rays in space. The
      university's NSF-Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility,
      which Jull directs, focuses much research in this area.
    * Monday, Aug. 13 - A special session on protoplanetary dust.
    * Tuesday, Aug. 14 - A special session on chondrules and chondrule
      formation. Chondrules are small grains of minerals found in some
      meteorites. Scientists believe the minerals formed as hot gases
      condensed during solar system formation.

The UA geosciences department and UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory are
hosting the conference. UA conference sponsors also include the College
of Science; the UA departments of planetary sciences geosciences and
physics; the NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, the Southwest Meteorite Center,
Steward Observatory; the Life and Planets Astrobiology Center (LaPLACE)
and the University of Arizona Press. Meeting sponsors also include the
Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute, the Houston-based Lunar and
Planetary Institute, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Barringer Crater Company,
the Tucson Visitors and Convention Bureau and others.

During the last decade, the Meteoritical Society has held its annual
meeting in cities including Zurich, Rio de Janeiro, Rome (Vatican
Observatory), Chicago, Johannesburg and Dublin. The next two meetings
will be held in Japan and France.