Contact: Brad Heegel, Director of College Relations
Phone: (605) 351-3602
Fax: (605) 274-4903
www.augie.edu

November 9, 2004

Meteorites Topic of Presentation at Augustana College

SIOUX FALLS - "Meteorites - Messengers from Time and Space" is the topic of a presentation by Dr. Carleton B. Moore beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 13, in Gilbert Science Center room 100.

There are many types of meteorites ranging from nickel-iron masses to friable stones called carbonaceous chondrites containing prebiotic organic compounds. The many types and their chemical characteristics will be discussed.

The program is sponsored by Augustana College's Chemistry Department and the Sioux Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Moore is a professor of chemistry and geology at Arizona State University and specializes in geochemistry (meteorites).

His experience includes participation as lunar sample principle investigation for six Apollo missions (1969-75); on the Preliminary Examination Team, Lunar Receiving Laboratory (1969-73); and on the Lunar Sample Analysis and Planning Team (1977-82).

Meteorites are the most interesting extraterrestrial material available for chemical study. Most meteorites have seen little change since they were formed about a billion years ago and are valued as time probes and well as space probes. When the story of chemistry and origin of the solar system are finally written, meteorite analyses will have been far more useful than the study of surface samples from planets.

The overall aim in the study of meteorites is to discover the circumstances of their origin and their history between then and the present time. Chemists probably have made more major contributions to the understanding of their origin than any other discipline.

Gilbert Science Center is located at 33rd Street and Summit Avenue on the Augustana campus.