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Shooting star

Writer JOHN SILCOX Photographer GREG PAJO 052 Audi Magazine _ 053

‘ are the only extraterrestrial objects that have ever landed on Earth, and are the closest we will get to being able to study other planets until we actually get there ourselves’

Fig. 01 Fig. 02 From the stars Classic iron meteorite

With no light pollution, a clear Iron meteorites are fragments night sky above the Colorado from the cores of long-vanished Desert in reveals the planets or large asteroids that depths of the Milky Way. have fallen to Earth. They are Meteorites travel many millions of among the densest materials to miles before colliding with Earth be found on Earth 054 Audi Magazine _ Meteorite hunting 055

There are few places on Earth that feel bigger than the vast 130,000 square-mile expanse of the Colorado Plateau in southern USA. As we drive through this desert landscape in an Audi Q2, we are swallowed up: the horizon rolls on as far as the eye can see, and everything we come across seems unnaturally oversized. Even the road signs are massive and, turning off the historic Route 66 near Winslow, Arizona, we follow a giant one pointing towards Meteor Crater.

This mile-wide hole is our first destination on a One of the most recognisable faces at the show mission to learn more about meteorites, and how belongs to Geoff Notkin, a meteorite hunter who c o m e t they could help mankind unlock the mysteries of has been coming here for more than 20 years. the universe – explain where we come from, and He is the owner of a locally based meteorite sales where we are going. It’s also a great opportunity company called Aerolite, which has set up one of a s t e ro i d to see if Audi’s diminutive SUV can prove its the biggest stalls at the 22nd Street Show, one of worth on a wide variety of terrain, making the the city’s busiest trade halls. When we get near, most of its raised ride height and quattro we have to contend with the bustling crowds m e t e o r all-wheel-drive technology. attracted by the large and rare meteorites on Meteor Crater was created some 50,000 years display. They are also drawn to Geoff himself, ago after a meteorite collided with Earth. It is who is a bit of a celebrity in his own right after f i r e b a l l calculated to have been approximately 150 feet in starring in a TV show called Meteorite Men. diameter, weighing several hundred thousand ‘Meteorite-hunting has taken me on adventures m e t e o r i t e pounds and containing sufficient iron-nickel to all around the world,’ he explains. ‘These produce about 42,000 new cars. At the time of [very bright meteors] can fall with equal probability e a r t h impact it was travelling at 26,000mph, and the anywhere on Earth, so a hunt could just as easily collision rocked the American south-west with a lead you to Tucson as it could Timbuktu. Some force equivalent to more than 20 million tonnes landscapes are much better for spotting meteorites OUTER SPACE of TNT going off. than others, though. The best places are dry with

The main meteorite has never been retrieved, little or no vegetation, such as hot or cold deserts, Comet as it started disintegrating upon entering the where the meteorites stand out from the rest of the A mass of ice, rock and dust atmosphere and then exploded on impact. But backdrop quite vividly. That’s why Arizona has drifting in space which develops thousands of fragments of various sizes have been many prime hunting spots.’ a tail as it gets closer to the sun found nearby, including the Holsinger meteorite, In such a landscape, Geoff would usually head Asteroid which weighs more than half a tonne and is on out on a hunt armed with special metal detectors. A body – made of rock, metal or display in the visitor centre. The crater is a popular He scours the ground looking for meteorite other elements – that orbits the destination for space enthusiasts, and it attracts fragments, which can be detected due to their sun. Many are found in the asteroid belt (between and more than 200,000 visitors each year. It’s the magnetic properties. Then, he explains, there Jupiter). Their width ranges from are two other kinds of meteorite hunt: historic best-preserved crater of its kind in the world, and a few feet to hundreds of miles is similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs and fireball. – which landed a few thousand miles south, just Historic hunts are his favourite, and lead him Meteor off the coast of Mexico. to reinvestigate locations where meteorites have An asteroid or other object that burns up completely on entering been found in the past. Often he will study Earth’s atmosphere. They arrive After a few hours of comfortable highway archives looking for old references of meteorite as a single entity (shooting star) cruising, our next stop-off is the Tucson Gem, finds, and then use modern technology to pick up or in a cluster (meteor shower) Mineral & Fossil Show. For a few weeks each any pieces that were missed when the areas were spring, this small southern city is overrun by tens first searched. A fireball hunt is the opposite, and Fireball A large, bright meteor that of thousands of geology enthusiasts from all involves tracking down a freshly fallen meteorite. burns as it travels through around the world, who come to trade, collect and It requires travelling to locations where there have Earth’s atmosphere, producing a discover. More than 5000 stalls spring up in been recent sightings of meteorites in the sky, and streak of light that is sometimes various locations around the city, bristling with then deploying a wide variety of detectors. visible in daylight rare minerals, gems and even dinosaur fossils. It’s ‘Following fireballs can be quite a rush,’ he says. Meteorite one of the biggest events of the year for meteorite ‘If [the sighting] is well covered by the media then A meteor fragment that lands on dealers, who come to meet up with enthusiasts you will get quite a lot of competition from other Earth, having survived its journey and share their latest finds. hunters. These events are quite rare, and there >> through tbe atmosphere 056 Audi Magazine _ Meteor hunting 057

Fig. 03 Fig. 04 Meenakshi Wadhwa Meteor Crater, Arizona

Meenakshi is a professor The mile-wide impact zone of geological sciences at the of a large meteorite strike School of Earth and Space that occurred 50,000 years Exploration and director ago. Its scale is hard to gauge, of the Center for Meteorite but there are single-storey Studies, both at Arizona buildings at the bottom of State University. Working at the crater that are nearly a state-of-the-art facility in invisible to someone standing Phoenix, she helps curate one right at its edge of the largest collections of meteorites in the world 058 Audi Magazine _ Meteor hunting 059

Fig. 05 Fig. 06 Fig. 07 Audi Q2 Widmanstätten pattern Christian Meza Meteorites contain Christian works for Aerolite, Audi’s smallest SUV stands fascinating structures and a meteorite hunting and out at sunset against the patterns. Some iron-nickel trading company based in darkening horizon of the examples have a cross- Tucson, Arizona. He’s Arizona desert. The low hatched structure that holding part of a – light helps accentuate the indicates extremely slow a rare type of meteorite made Q2’s unique styling – its cooling, which is consistent up of large olivine crystals. sculpted bonnet and sinuous, with its formation inside Large specimens like this can coupé-like roof – while the an asteroid sell for thousands of dollars LED headlights fitted to our model provided powerful illumination along the desert’s twisting roads 060 Audi Magazine _ Meteor hunting 061

are only a handful of notable events a year but it’s ‘Of course we like to head off on our own field worth getting to the site first.’ Geoff explains that trips, but that’s not always possible. Quite often a large meteorite fragment can sell for tens of we won’t even hear of a meteorite discovery until thousands of dollars to private collectors. Size a trader brings us a specimen, which they have isn’t the only determining factor when it comes to acquired from somebody in a remote part of the value, though, as the rarity of the meteorite’s world. We have a symbiotic relationship with the composition also plays a role. ‘There’s also an commercial meteorite trade.’ analogy with the fine-art world, as the provenance We meet Meenakshi at her custom-built of a piece can make it more valuable – it adds laboratory in Phoenix, which is a few hours’ drive intrigue and wonder,’ he adds. away. The sun is beating down, so we’re making full use of the dual-zone electronic climate control It’s not only collectors and enthusiasts who are fitted to our Q2. interested in meteorites: the scientific community This facility houses one of the finest collections is also very involved. Some of the world’s leading in the world, with more than 40,000 individual universities and museums of natural history have segments of 2000 different meteorites. Founded extensive meteorite collections that are the in 1961, it looks more like a museum of modern focus of scientific research projects. Remarkably, art than a research lab. The meteorites come in all there is a close relationship between enthusiasts, shapes and sizes, and many of them have been commercial interests and the world of science. cross-segmented to reveal eye-catching mineral Shows such as this one are regularly attended by structures within. academics, who come to acquire new material for ‘People often don’t realise how beautiful study or trade specimens with dealers. meteorites can be,’ she says, showing us how, as ‘Without the meteorite sellers, it would be hard some cuts are passed through the microscope, for us to get enough new material to study,’ states they reveal a kaleidoscope of colours like a Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for stained-glass window. ‘We look at different Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University. meteorites in many different ways, including >>

Fig. 08 Leigh Kuwanwisisma Standing on his ancestral lands, Hopi Native Indian Leigh surveys the landscape of mesa hills. Until recently he was the director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office. In 2013, just before his daughter’s wedding, he witnessed a meteorite flying over his house – a very auspicious sign in Hopi cultural tradition 062 Audi Magazine _ Meteor hunting 063

extreme magnification, and also using magnetic comprises the experiences of the Hopi people spectrometers. But our interest reaches far beyond since we travelled in the south-west, and talks aesthetic considerations. For us, the meteorites about how we were created. According to stories, provide a way to look back into our past. It’s the spiritual people, called “kachinas”, gave us almost like time travel, as they can show us what corn, and as a result we submitted to their rules was happening 4.5 billion years ago. They are of compassion, industry, respect, environmental basically remnants of the Big Bang.’ stewardship and reciprocity.’ Broadly speaking there are three types of Oral tradition plays a massive part in sharing meteorite. There are stony mixtures of minerals these stories, as do dances, which all focus on called chondrites, which look like slightly sparkly particular kachinas. These spirit beings are also lumps of rock. Then there are stony irons, which represented by dolls, which are gifted to young are half metal and half peridot (a type of mineral girls to teach them about the different stories. with a glassy, green/yellow aspect), but these There is one particular doll for the meteorite, with IN NUMBERS account for less than two per cent of known a black face to represent its ‘burning up’ in the meteorites. Finally, iron meteorites are made atmosphere, and an eagle feather tail to symbolise 4.5 billion years almost completely from iron-nickel metal, and the trail in the sky. The meteorite plays a special ago, our solar system was born. often resemble lumps of twisted metal. role in wedding ceremonies, and has also Most meteorites come from the ‘Meteorites are central to our understanding of influenced Leigh’s life. asteroid belt between Jupiter and how and when the Earth was formed, and might ‘We’re told stories about the meteors and that a Mars, created during this event even hold clues to how life started,’ continues meteor shower represents a bride going to a Meenakshi. ‘Meteorites are literally the materials groom,’ he says. ‘When I was little I couldn’t 160,000mph is the fastest speed at which a that didn’t get folded into making planets. They’re connect to that, but in 2013, we were preparing meteorite may be moving when the only extraterrestrial objects that have ever for my daughter’s wedding, and she started its reaches our atmosphere landed on Earth, and are the closest we will get to yelling, “Dad!” I heard this enormous roar and (though some are as slow as being able to study other planets until we actually then ran outside. No more than a hundred feet 26,000mph!) get there ourselves.’ up, we saw a fireball coming over the house from the east. It was red, yellow and pink, and you 40,000 meteorites are estimated to have Meteorites don’t just play an elementary role in could see the ash, right over us. We were all scared been found on Earth. It is thought science but are central to ancient belief systems, – at first we thought that it was a plane crashing, that around 500 fall each year such as Native American cosmology. After leaving but it was actually a meteor.’ – but fewer than 10 are recovered Phoenix, we head north through the Navajo A sighting such as this is a once-in-a-lifetime Nation before arriving in the Hopi Reservation, occurrence – but on the Hopi Reservation there 700 miles a high and barren area in the windswept plains of are other opportunities to admire the beauty of is the distance we travelled in our Audi Q2, from the congested northern Arizona. In this part of the country the outer space. Due to the remoteness of the villages streets of Tucson to the empty roads are poorly maintained, but the Q2 manages and the near absence of light pollution, it is expanse of the Colorado plateau well. The car’s strong suspension absorbs the possible to do some first-grade stargazing.

worst of the potholes, while being stiff enough to ‘Living in this remote place, you feel the g r a n d c a n yo n n at i o n a l pa r k help us negotiate windy parts of the road. tranquillity at night when you look at the stars,’ h o p i This is one of the oldest permanent settlements adds Leigh. ‘Sometimes, during the summer, reservation in the whole of the USA. People have been living I sit outside and just look at the cosmos. It is

in adobe-style mud dwellings on three ‘mesas’ fascinating because it is the same sight that my f l ag s ta f f m e t e o r (the local name for flat-topped hills) since before great-great ancestors also saw in their lifetime. c r at e r the Norman conquest of Britain. The Hopi is It’s the eternal link.’

one of Arizona’s oldest tribes, dating back to As the sun goes down, we start to understand p h o e n i x Paleo-Indian times, and its people were once what he means. The view from the Hopi nomadic. Today, there are 13,000 members spread Reservation is a veritable feast for the eyes, and t u c s o n among the reservation’s 12 small villages. soon the entire sky is covered in bright white AUDI Q2 QUATTRO Our host in these lands is 67-year-old Leigh lights. The area gets less than 12 inches of rainfall Price from £32,065 OTR Kuwanwisisma, the former director of the Hopi per year, so there is barely any cloud cover, making 66 tonnes Engine 2.0 TFSI 190PS Cultural Preservation Office. Leigh is a member of such clear nights a regular occurrence. is the weight of the largest Transmission seven-speed tiptronic the Greasewood Bear Clan and has lived here all While admiring such a magnificent spectacle, meteorite ever discovered. It was Drivetrain quattro all-wheel drive his life. For more than 30 years he worked for it’s easy to start contemplating the scale of it all, found in 1920 by a farmer in Grootfontein, Namibia 0-62mph 6.5 seconds the tribal government in a number of roles. His and how far meteorites have travelled to land on mission was to record, preserve and pass on the Earth. When you consider how little we know Top speed 141mph £500,000-800,000 culture, history and practices of his people. about these rocks, it puts into perspective how Efficiency 44.8mpg combined*, was the expected sale price of a ‘All of our beliefs are encompassed simply in a little we know about the wider cosmos and the 144g/km CO * 700kg specimen found in 2  *Standard EU test figure forcomparative purposes and may not code called the Hopi way of life,’ explains Leigh, secrets it contains. To find out more about in 2005, and put on auction at reflect real driving results. With 18-inch wheels speaking to us in his home on Third Mesa. ‘This the Audi Q2, visit audi.co.uk Christie’s in London in 2016