Exactly 20 years ago, chunks from an ancient asteroid rained down on Park Forest homes, marking a rare instance of space rocks falling in a heavily populated area.
lived just blocks away when chunks from an ancient asteroid began raining down in Park Forest March 26, 2003, but he didn’t connect a prolonged flash of light just before midnight with his chosen field of study right away, in part because of actual rain.Steven Simon, a senior research scientist with the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, lived in Park Forest March 26, 2003, when a meteorite broke up above the village and rained fragments throughout the area.
“What do you do when you hear noises in the middle of the night? You call the police,” Simon said. “These things hit peoples homes and police came and took custody of them until they could figure out if it was kids throwing rocks or an actual meteorite. And sure enough, it was an actual meteorite.” Among those who sprinted over was amateur astronomer Art Maurer, of Crete, who for years has shared his love of lights in the sky by bringing telescopes to library and forest preserve programs. He also worked for a while at the planetarium at Joliet Junior College.
Back at the police station in 2003, Simon had been charged by his boss to bring in some samples for further investigation. There were two kinds — one lighter in color and a darker variety, and Simon had only secured an owner’s permission for one of them after assuring them the analysis would be nondestructive and they would get their artifact back. Nobody would let him borrow the other type, though.
And another meteorite was lodged in the roof at the Park Forest Fire Department, making it village property, Simon said. He brokered a deal between Park Forest and the Field Museum, and that chunk became the “reference specimen,” he said.As it turned out, theare a more common variety that probably broke off from a much larger asteroid millions of years ago.
Simon’s main professional focus is on even older meteorites, ones that contain evidence of the birth of our solar system. But he’s proud of his role in recovering and classifying the Park Forest Meteorite, “adding some very fresh material to the meteorite collection.”
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