[meteorite-list] Didim Meteorite Being Studied at University

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.voicesnewspaper.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=558

Didim's meteorite zooms towards university
Voices Newspaper (Turkey)
March 4, 2007
 
THE location of the meteor which landed in Didim, causing worldwide
focus, has finally reached its resting place - a university laboratory.

Scientists at Canakkale University have taken the meteor away to be studied.

But is has also thrown light on the university's three-year
investigation into meteors and their craters around the country.

According to Canakkale's Prof Dr Mehmet Ozel, the university is
presently conducting a wide-ranging survey of meteors which have landed
in Turkey - of which there are believed to be about 13.

As head of an eight-man team, the professor said they had been able to
locate five craters and meteors but the others were still being sought.

He said the Didim meteor had helped to highlight his team's work and
would hopefully attract more interest from people who may have witnessed
meteors or had retrieved them innocently without knowing their full
scientific merit.

However, he did indicate that retrieving the Didim meteor had not been
to easy.

The meteor was claimed by Abdullah Arturk when it rocketed to earth 
and landed at the Green Park complex, in Yesilkent, last Thursday, after
scores of people across the Bodrum Peninsula reported to police a ball
of fire across the sky.

Prof Ozel said: "We wanted that stone and we retrieved it from him with
much difficulty."

Collectors from as far as America have offered astronomical prices to
get their hands on the famous meteor of Didim

Arturk, not eager to part from his meteor of which he thinks to be a
present from God, solved the problem by splitting it into two.

American collector Robert Wesel, who read the news in Voices has offered
Arturk 1,800 dollars. Another American collector Stephan Grossman
offered 500 dollars to buy the meteor.