Wednesday, April 7, 2010 as of 11:14 AM ET
Robert Ward has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years, so he knew he'd found something special in the Sierra foothills along the path of a flaming fireball that shook parts of Northern California and Nevada with a sonic boom over the weekend.
And scientists have confirmed his suspicions: it's one of the more primitive types of space rocks out there, dating to the early formation of the solar system 4 to 5 billion years ago."It was just, needless to say, a thrilling moment," Ward of Prescott, Ariz., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday as he walked through an old cemetery in search of more meteorites about 35 miles northeast of Sacramento.He found the first piece on Tuesday along a road between a baseball field and park on the edge of Lotus near Coloma, where James W. Marshall first discovered gold in California, at Sutter's Mill in 1848.Ward, who has found meteorites in every continent but Antarctica and goes by "AstroBob" on his website, ...Bits and pieces of the famous Halley's Comet will light up the overnight sky in a promising meteor shower, weather permitting, skywatching experts say.The annual Eta...
The upcoming Geminid meteor shower next week may promise to be the best sky show of the year, but for many scientists it's a space light show shrouded in mystery.Sky...
A ninth-grader was shot to death by another student during a class change Friday at a north Alabama middle school, authorities said.Todd Brown, 14, was shot about 1:...
A bright fireball that lit up the sky above parts of Alabama last week was caught by NASA cameras as it streaked over the southeastern United States . The fireball w...
Outer space has become Earth's largest junkyard.It is an international dumping ground for derelict spacecraft, wreckage from colliding satellites, remains from misch...
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah company that makes powerful booster rockets for space travel conducted its final ground test on Thursday for the nation's fading space shutt...
NASA chief Charles Bolden unveiled new work orders for space centers across the country Thursday to pull them in line with the new space plan envisioned by President...
NASA has long planned to mine water on the moon to supply human colonies and future space exploration. Now the discovery of small amounts of water across much of the...
The Lyrid meteor shower amazed some skywatchers around the world with bright celestial fireworks this weekend, thanks in part to the lack of a bright moon.The annual...
Multiple reports of a fireball in the sky seem to confirm a passing meteor near the North Jersey-New York City area, reports Fox 29 . The incident happened before 1...
It has been 25 years since Halley's Comet last passed through the inner solar system, but an annual meteor shower keeps the icy wanderer's legacy on Earth alive this...
We are not alone in the universe -- and alien life forms may have a lot more in common with life on Earth than we had previously thought.That's the stunning conclusi...
A gang of heavily insulated scientists has wrapped up its Antarctic expedition, with its members thawing out from the experience, but pleased to have bagged more tha...
There "may never be a clear answer" as to why a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville allegedly shot and killed three colleagues and wounded t...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- Usually space shuttle astronauts are awakened in orbit by a song sent by a loved one. But not much is routine for the final space shuttle ...
Ohio residents should be on the lookout for potential small meteorites that may have been created by a bright fireball that streaked over southern Ontario, Canada, l...
Gabrielle Silva takes down a customer's order from the drive-thru window, stuffs a bag full of products and passes it outside to the couple waiting in a car."Thanks,...
The Earth will pass through the cast-off remnants of an ancient comet Friday, and the resulting meteor shower will be lackluster at best, experts say. Yet the event ...
NASA test-fired a new first-stage rocket motor in the Utah desert Tuesday for a rocket that is facing a shaky future.The space agency and contractor Alliant Techsyst...
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