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COLLECTION NEWS

The Fife, Texas Meteorite Joins the Monnig Meteorite Gallery

HAVE YOU FOUND A METEORITE?
Do you have a "strange" rock? We'll let you know whether or not it's a meteorite. Contact the curator of the Monnig Meteorite Collection at a.ehlmann@tcu.edu or call 817-257-MARS (6277).
A scene from the famous Bayeux Tapestry. After Harold was crowned King of England on January 6, 1066, Halley's Comet appeared in the sky. Witnesses saw it as an evil omen, and were terrified. Harold was defeated and killed soon after at the Battle of Hastings.

It was one of those bright Saturday mornings in February, 2004, when Paul and Linda Alastuey came to TCU cradling in their arm what they thought "might be a meteorite". Their son had found our web page and suggested they take the "meteorite" to Fort Worth even though it was a 300 mile round trip. Although not one to "jump the gun", I said as they entered "this looks like the real thing" because it had thumb prints on an otherwise smooth surface. Paul had plowed up this stone in April of 2003 and alertly noted it looked different from the other stones in the future wheat field.

On taking a slice off the broken bottom of the 20 pound stone, the "real thing" turned out to be a beautiful black chondrite with surprisingly little weathering. Subsequent electron microprobe analysis at the Smithsonian and microscopic analysis at TCU revealed the stone meteorite to be an H5 ordinary chondrite. On May 4, the stone was purchased by TCU and will be on display in the Monnig Meteorite Gallery. The name "Fife" (a small community 30 miles north of Brady, Texas) is pending before the International Committee on Naming.

— Dr. Arthur J. Ehlmann, Curator [pictured center]