“It was past midnight…there was a strange noise…due to the dark of the night we saw nothing…the next morning a worker came to say that there was a cow killed under strange circumstances.” ~ Juan Delgado, 1972. On October 15th, 1972 in Trujillo, Venezuela, a meteorHow long Sonic booms Of the several 10s of tons of cosmic material entering Earth's atmosphere each day, only about one ton reaches the surface. An object's chance of survival depends on its initial mass, speed and angle of entry, and friability (tendency to break up). Micrometeoroids radiate heat so Click on Term to Read More entered our atmosphere and killed a cow. Yes, it struck a cow and nearly cut it in half! The owner of the farm, a physician by the name of Argimiro Gonzalez, wasn’t particularly concerned or surprised. He rationalized that this sort of thing must happen from time to time and he ended up using the meteor fragment as a doorstop. Many years later an astronomer, Dr. Ignacio Ferrin, heard about the story and approached the heirs of Dr. Gonzalez. After verifying the story with several witnesses, Dr. Ferrin purchased the Valera meteoriteWork in progress. A solid natural object reaching a planet’s surface from interplanetary space. Solid portion of a meteoroid that survives its fall to Earth, or some other body. Meteorites are classified as stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites. These groups are further divided according to their mineralogy and Click on Term to Read More which has the distinction of being one of the only documented fatal meteorite impacts.
On the evening of 1972 October 15, a bright light accompanied by a loud noise was witnessed near the El Tinajero farm. The next morning, Dr. Arginiro Gonzales and his guest, Juan Dionicio Delgado, discovered that a cow had apparently been killed by a falling stone. The stone had broken into three pieces weighing 38, 8, and 4 kg, respectively. The largest specimen remained outdoors for decades which is why this “fresh fall” has a weathering grade of W3.
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