Remarkably well defined flowlines on a Millbillillie meteorite

Millbillillies typically exhibit a dazzling color combination: black fusion crust mixed with bright orange Australian desert soil which adhered to the crust, producing a visual contrast of unique and striking beauty.

This 17.5-gram Millbillillie displays abundant flowlines and a glossy, black fusion crust

The Millbillillie fall occurred in October of 1960, and was witnessed by only two men, near the town of Wiluna in Western Australia. It was ten years until the first stone was found. These intriguing space rocks often exhibit distinct orientation, glossy fusion crust, contraction cracks, rollover lips, and some of the most highly defined flowlines of any meteorite.

This full slice of the Millbillillie eucrite shows its unusual internal structure which, unlike most meteorites, is devoid of iron

Some meteoriticists believe that the HED group meteorites may have come to us from the large asteroid Vesta which was discovered in 1807 by the German astronomer Olbers. With a diameter of more than 500 km, Vesta is the second-largest body in the Asteroid Belt. If these alluring space rocks do, in fact, count Vesta as their parent body then they are among a tiny number of meteorites—along with lunars and martians—with a specific known point of origin.

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Photographs by Suzanne Morrison © Aerolite Meteorites LLC
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The owner strictly enforces intellectual property rights.

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.

In the Acknowledgements section, I wrote that I was thanking the people who not only “helped directly with the book, but also those who helped me gain the knowledge and experience that I would need in order to write it.” My view is that if you’re writing a how-guide to something, you really need to know your subject. It has been seventeen years since I found my first meteorite, and one of the remarkable things about my work is I am always learning new things, developing new techniques and hunting strategies, testing new equipment, and gathering additional knowledge about the strange and fascinating world of meteorites. If I had written Meteorite Hunting even a year earlier, it would have not been the book that it is. Our successes in the field while filming Meteorite Men Season Two added to its content, because we had unique experiences while hunting for meteorites north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden and in the Australian Outback, and also had the extraordinary pleasure of pitching our tents on the floor of Chile’s mangificent Monturaqui meteorite crater.

"Meteorite Hunting" was published Feb. 1, 2011

My friend Chris Cokinos, author of my favorite meteorite book The Fallen Sky, did me the great honor of writing the Introduction, and astronomer and asteroid specialist Dr. Larry Lebofsky and his wife Nancy, carried out a stellar job as editors. My Meteorite Men co-host, Steve Arnold, read the manuscript and made helfpul comments, as did my researcher Katherine Rambo, and my great friend Dr. Art Ehlmann, Curator Emeritus of the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas. So, I did call in some heavyweight intellects to assist, and Meteorite Hunting is the best we could make it.

A 468-gram iron meteorite found near the Henbury Craters in Australia

The book features many never-before-seen photographs from the first and second seasons of Meteorite Men. For the past couple of years I’ve been putting aside some of the best location and expedition photos for use in the book. I wanted to save something special for the new work, instead of reprinting photos that viewers and enthusiasts had already seen in other publications.

From Chapter 14
Excavating Meteorites and Documenting Finds

When Steve and I were north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden hunting the Muonionalusta strewnfield, we found a beautiful 30.4-kilogram (67-pound) iron at a depth of about 1 1/2 meters. The meteorite had been transported by a long-vanished glacier and had been deposited in the terminal moraine—unsorted debris dropped as an ice sheet melts and recedes. The iron was securely wedged under a boulder that had also been dropped by the glacier. This find proved that our pulse induction detector could, indeed, see right though large rocks. It also proved that sometimes there is no substitute for hard manual labor. Our permit to hunt at the site specified that we were not allowed to use mechanized vehicles in the forest, so we had to dig the iron by hand. The combined efforts of our four-person team were not sufficient to shift the boulder, which easily weighed several hundred pounds. Sometimes meteorite recovery is all about determination, and there was no way we were leaving that marvelous specimen in the ground. After several strategy discussions, and several hours of experimentation, we greatly expanded the size of hole, dug around the boulder, and under it, until we were able to dislodge the trapped meteorite by having our friend and colleague Carin Österburg jump up and down on it until it worked loose.

Every expedition is different and every challenge requires a new solution. Persistence pays off and, once in a while, brute force wins out.

Meteorite Hunting is 100 pages with full color throughout. It features 100 exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams, and was published by Aerolite Meteorites LLC, in Tucson, Arizona. Copies can be ordered safely and easily, online at www.meteoritehunters.tv or by calling the Aerolite offices at 888 SKY ROXX or 520 742 3333.

Watch the skies!

The new series of one-hour science/adventure programs will continue to co-star meteorite hunters Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin as they search for rare and valuable rocks from space. Eric Schotz and Ruth Rivin return as executive producers for LMNO Productions of Encino, California, and Bob Melisso will continue on a supervising producer. Sonya Bourn and Kathy Williamson joined the production team in August.

The cast and crew of Meteorite Men on location in Kiowa County, Kansas, filming the pilot in early October, 2008

Pre-production work is already underway at some top secret sites and there will be some surprises in store for viewers in the new episodes. The new series of Meteorite Men will air in 2010 on the Science Channel.

Co-host Geoff Notkin will be writing a behind-the-scenes “Making of Meteorite Men TV Diary” as part of his daily science blog, The Logical Lizard, for TucsonCitizen.com.