Oriented meteorites typically also display a flat or concave trailing edge, and sometimes a rollover lip, where molten material has accumulated on the reverse side. The characteristics of oriented meteorites were studied by rocket ship designers. Oriented meteorites are very rare, and highly prized by collectors, as are rollover lips—a remarkable feature unique to space rocks.

Detail of a rollover lip on a Gao-Guenie stone meteorite

Learn more about the Gao-Guenie meteorite >>>

Delicate rollover lip and flowlines on a rare Millbillillie eucrite meteorite from Australia

Learn more about the Millbillillie meteorite >>>

Learn more about the Sikhote-Alin meteorite >>> 

Photographs by Suzanne Morrison and Geoffrey Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC
No reproduction without written permission. All rights reserved.

Leigh Anne (above left), the author, and Lisa Marie of Sirocco Design filming How the Earth was Made for the History Channel, out in the Arizona boonies. Photograph by Stu Jenks, Fezziwig Photography © Aerolite Meteorites

At the recent screening party for the world premiere of Meteorite Men, my good friend and rather brilliant photography and design assistant, Leigh Anne DelRay, brought along a most interesting fellow, whom we now affectionately know as Bug Eric. Noted author, blogger, and world-famous entomologist, Eric R. Eaton and I are both members of the Society of Southwestern Authors, based here in Arizona.

A week before the party Leigh Anne recounted to me an amusing story in which Eric spoke to her about a small article he’d read in the SSA newsletter, The Write Word. It was a piece about a science writer and meteorite hunter who lived here in Tucson. After letting Eric comment at length about the article and about how he might like to meet that meteorite hunter in person, Leigh Anne wryly announced that the subject of the article was, in fact, her boss Geoff. So Eric got invited to our broadcast party and was kind enough to mention the event in his excellent blog Bug Eric, which we highly recommend. Congratulations to Eric on his recent appointment to the University of Massachusetts. I once attended a very raucous Jimi Hendrix tribute party at U Mass, but that tale is probably best left for an entirely different blog.

Meanwhile, Leigh Anne continues to do remarkable photographic work in the meteorite world. Her pictures are regularly featured on the Aerolite Meteorites website in our Meteorites for Sale Catalogue; in my monthly science column Meteorwritings for Geology.com; one was published in the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Collection Catalog; and others have been published in articles I wrote, co-wrote, or appeared in for Sky & Telescope, Sci Q magazine, the Write Word, and others. She also appeared with me in the History Channel’s documentary series How the Earth was Made — skulking around in a dry wash in the Arizona boonies looking for meteorites.

Leigh Anne is a great artistic talent and you can see more of her work at Callisto Images.

“I claim this asteroid in the name of the Meteorite Men . . .” At the Meteorite Men broadcast
party, the author plants a flag atop the 273-lb Brenham pallasite that he and Steve Arnold excavated
while filming the show. Photograph by Suzanne Morrison, Back Country Photography AZ © Suzanne Morrison.

Leigh Anne will be working with me and my other photography assistant, Suzanne Morrison of Back Country Photography AZ, on a major new meteorite project which we hope to unveil during the summer. Yeah, that’s going to be something special.

Stay tuned and . . .

WATCH THE SKIES!