in the line of fire?

No pun intended...

Received a query from a person from the general public via the Observing Committee web page form.

Subject: identify rock/metal fragment

Err...

The person said they had found a small fragment of burnt metal/rock in their backyard lying on top of the grass and assumed it to be space debris. They doubted it was a meteorite because it wa relatively light. It was very hard and she could not break it. She wondered if it was from the fireball seen on August 22 from Crystal Beach.

I responded. I declined an offered photo. I shared a link to the University of New Mexico web site, into the Geology department. Encouraged her to read the information there. I also told her that if it really is from space, she should immediately protect the object from contamination by bagging it. I also suggested taking it to the geological or geophysics department of a local university.