 | This biographical article needs more biographical information on the subject.(December 2010) |
Robert A. Haag | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1956 (age 66) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Meteorite hunter |
| Known for | Collecting meteorites |
Robert A. Haag (born 1956 [1] ) is an American famous for collecting meteorites. Some meteorites acquired from Haag are currently on display in the Smithsonian. [1]
Haag was detained as a preventative measure pending judgement in Argentina charged with removing protected rocks (the 37 ton El Chaco meteorite). [2] [3] Haag claimed he was set up by an Argentinian mineral dealer, who had asserted the meteorite belonged to the land owner and the dealer entered into an arrangement to broker the sale to Haag for $200,000. Haag was released from detainment and left Argentina after paying bail and having his passport returned. [4]
Haag was the first private citizen and meteorite hunter to discover a Lunar meteorite, [5] [6] known as Calcalong Creek. It was discovered among other meteorites coming out of the Australian Millbillillie meteorite (eucrite achondrite) strewn field. It was bought as a Millbillillie by Haag, but he discovered it was a lunar meteorite. He was also one of the first private citizens to obtain Martian meteorites.
He was featured in a story in Omni Magazine in July 1993. [7] [8]
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause it to heat up and radiate energy. It then becomes a meteor and forms a fireball, also known as a shooting star or falling star; astronomers call the brightest examples "bolides". Once it settles on the larger body's surface, the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorites vary greatly in size. For geologists, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater.
A lunar meteorite is a meteorite that is known to have originated on the Moon. A meteorite hitting the Moon is normally classified as a transient lunar phenomenon.
Campo del Cielo refers to a group of iron meteorites and the area in Argentina where they were found. The site straddles the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero, located 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) north-northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina and approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) southwest of Asunción, Paraguay. The crater field covers 3 by 18.5 kilometres and contains at least 26 craters, the largest being 115 by 91 metres.
An achondrite is a stony meteorite that does not contain chondrules. It consists of material similar to terrestrial basalts or plutonic rocks and has been differentiated and reprocessed to a lesser or greater degree due to melting and recrystallization on or within meteorite parent bodies. As a result, achondrites have distinct textures and mineralogies indicative of igneous processes.
ANSMET is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for meteorites that have originally fallen on the extensive high-altitude ice fields throughout Antarctica. Such meteorites are quickly covered by subsequent snowfall and begin a centuries-long journey traveling "downhill" across the Antarctic continent while embedded in a vast sheet of flowing ice. Portions of such flowing ice can be halted by natural barriers such as the Transantarctic Mountains. Subsequent wind erosion of the motionless ice brings trapped meteorites back to the surface once more where they may be collected. This process concentrates meteorites in a few specific areas to much higher concentrations than they are normally found everywhere else. The contrast of the dark meteorites against the white snow, and lack of terrestrial rocks on the ice, makes such meteorites relatively easy to find. However, the vast majority of such ice-embedded meteorites eventually slide undiscovered into the ocean.
Moon rock or lunar rock refers to rock that is found on Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as meteorites.
Neumann lines, or Neumann bands, are fine patterns of parallel lines seen in cross-sections of many hexahedrite iron meteorites in the kamacite phase, although they may appear also in octahedrites provided the kamacite phase is about 30 micrometres wide. They can be seen after a polished meteorite cross-section is treated with acid. The lines are indicative of a shock-induced deformation of the kamacite crystal, and are thought to be due to impact events on the parent body of the meteorite.
The Fukang meteorite is a meteorite that was found in the mountains near Fukang, China in 2000. It is a pallasite—a type of stony–iron meteorite with olivine crystals. It is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.
Lunar soil is the fine fraction of the regolith found on the surface of the Moon. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial dirt. The physical properties of lunar soil are primarily the result of mechanical disintegration of basaltic and anorthositic rock, caused by continual meteoric impacts and bombardment by solar and interstellar charged atomic particles over billions of years. The process is largely one of mechanical weathering in which the particles are ground to progressively finer size over time. This situation contrasts fundamentally to terrestrial dirt formation, mediated by the presence of molecular oxygen (O2), humidity, atmospheric wind, and a robust array of contributing biological processes.
The Peekskill meteorite is among the most historic meteorite events on record. Sixteen separate video recordings document the meteorite burning through the Earth's atmosphere in October 1992, whereupon it struck a parked car in Peekskill, New York, United States. The Peekskill meteorite is an H6 monomict breccia; its filigreed texture is the result of the shocking and heating following the impact of two asteroids in outer space. The meteorite is of the stony variety and approximately 20% of its mass is tiny flakes of nickel-iron. When it struck Earth, the meteorite weighed 27.7 pounds (12.6 kg) and measured one foot in diameter. The Peekskill meteorite is estimated to be 4.4 billion years old.
Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer space. Such materials include cosmic dust and meteorites, as well as samples brought to Earth by sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comets, as well as solar wind particles.
Enstatite chondrites are a rare form of meteorite, rich in the mineral enstatite. Only about 200 E-Type chondrites are currently known, comprising about 2% of the chondrites that fall on Earth. There are two main subtypes: EH and EL, classified based on their iron content.
Of the 270 Apollo 11 Moon rocks and the Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rocks that were given to the nations of the world by the Nixon Administration, approximately 180 are unaccounted for. Many of these rocks that are accounted for have been locked away in storage for decades. The location of the rocks has been tracked by researchers and hobbyists because of their rarity and the difficulty of obtaining more. Moon rocks have been subjects of theft and forgery as well.
Planetary science is the scientific study of planets, celestial bodies and planetary systems and the processes of their formation. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, which originally grew from astronomy and earth science, and now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary geology, cosmochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, and exoplanetology. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with the effects of the Sun on the bodies of the Solar System, and astrobiology.
The Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility (LSLF) is a repository and laboratory facility at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, opened in 1979 to house geologic samples returned from the Moon by the Apollo program missions to the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972. The facility preserves most of the 382 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar material returned over the course of Apollo program and other extraterrestrial samples, along with associated data records. It also contains laboratories for processing and studying the samples without contamination.
Joseph Richard Gutheinz is an American attorney, college instructor, commissioner, writer, and former Army intelligence officer, Army aviator, and Federal law enforcement officer. He is known as the founder of the "Moon Rock Project" which aims to track down missing Apollo Moon rock samples.
Allan Hills A81005 or ALH A81005 was the first lunar meteorite found on Earth. It was found in 1982 in the Allan Hills at the end of the Transantarctic Mountains, during a meteorite gathering expedition (ANSMET).
Geoffrey Notkin is an American actor, author, and entrepreneur. Notkin is known as one of the hosts of Meteorite Men, a documentary reality television series from Science Channel, which ran for three seasons. He is the president of the National Space Society, and holds a seat on the National Space Society Board of Governors. He is a long-time member of The Explorer's Club. In 2013, Notkin's Twitter account was nominated for a Shorty Award, honoring the best in social media. Notkin has also been interviewed on the Today show, Coast to Coast, and NASA Edge TV, and is a regular guest speaker at TusCon, an intimate science fiction, fantasy, and horror convention held annually in Tucson, Arizona.
Project Harvest Moon was a first effort by private individuals to explore and exploit the Moon. Sponsored by the Committee for the Future, "the original space advocacy organization in the NASA era," Harvest Moon would have used a leftover Saturn rocket and lunar module to conduct experiments on the Moon, paid for by the sale of lunar materials retrieved from the Moon's surface. The Committee for the Future was founded and propelled by Barbara Marx Hubbard, daughter of wealthy toy manufacturer Louis Marx. Hubbard received support from retired military officers, former NASA employees, and prominent industrialists. On May 11, 1972, Rep. Olin Teague (D-Tex) offered a Resolution in support, but the project was terminated that summer following cogent objections from NASA.
The ranks included Robert "Meteorite Man" Haag, once jailed in Argentina for allegedly poaching protected rocks...