Latest news with #FranklinCollege
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Meteorite identified after crashing into Georgia home
ATHENS, Ga. – A meteorite that streaked across the sky of the Southeast and ended up crashing into a Georgia home has now been studied by researchers at the University of Georgia. The space debris, now known as the "McDonough Meteorite," crashed through Earth's atmosphere on June 26, creating a large fireball before damaging a home outside of Atlanta. Scott Harris, a planetary geologist and impact expert with UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, examined fragments that were recovered from the scene and traced their composition to around 4.5 billion years ago – long before the formation of Earth. "It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago," Harris told the university's news service. "But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth's orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time." See The Objects Humans Left Behind On The Moon The incoming meteor quickly broke apart when it sailed through Earth's atmosphere, with the largest piece that struck the Henry County home estimated to be the size of a cherry tomato. Despite its small size, the meteorite was large enough to leave behind a hole in the roof, damage to HVAC ductwork and a significant dent in the wood floor. No one was injured during the incident, but the impact was said to be as loud as a gunshot. The UGA was granted access to study 23 grams of the 50 grams recovered from the home and is working in coordination with Arizona State University on further research. According to the UGA, the event was the 27th meteorite that has been recovered in the Peach State. "This is something that used to be expected once every few decades and not multiple times within 20 years," Harris stated. "Modern technology in addition to an attentive public is going to help us recover more and more meteorites." Did The National Weather Service Capture A Photo Of Bigfoot During A Pennsylvania Storm Survey? The latest update won't be the final word on the McDonough Meteorite, as Harris and his team plan to publish a paper detailing the object's composition and dynamics. Additional recovered pieces of the meteorite are scheduled to go on display at the Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta. The university did not state if the homeowner has completed repairs to his property, but damage caused by a meteorite usually falls under a standard insurance article source: Meteorite identified after crashing into Georgia home
CNN
2 days ago
- Science
- CNN
Meteorite that tore through southeastern US skies this summer determined to be older than Earth itself, researchers say
A meteorite that tore through the sky in June shaking the Southeast with a sonic boom is now believed to be 4.56 billion years old, according to researchers who studied it following its crash landing. Fragments of the extraterrestrial rock were turned over to scientists after they fell to Earth this summer to determine their classification and origin. The University of Georgia received 23 of the 50 grams of the McDonough Meteorite, named after the Georgia city where it ripped through the roof and ceiling of a home, according to the university. 'This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,' Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences' department of geology, said in the news release. Harris determined the meteorite to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite – a type of stony meteorite – and thus 20 million years older than Earth by 'using optical and electron microscopy,' the university said. 'It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago,' Harris said in the release. 'But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth's orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.' UGA is also working with partners at Arizona State University to submit the meteorite's name and findings to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society, Harris said. Harris also plans to publish a scientific paper about the rock to further understand the potential threats meteorites pose. 'One day there will be an opportunity, and we never know when it's going to be, for something large to hit and create a catastrophic situation. If we can guard against that, we want to,' he said. The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on June 26, CNN previously reported. The reports came during the Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level celestial event that was ongoing during the last week of June. A Henry County, Georgia, resident had reported at the time that a rock – which would later be identified as the McDonough Meteorite – fell through their ceiling around the same time the June fireball occurred, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. The object had broken through the roof and ceiling before cracking the flooring inside the home. 'I suspect that he heard three simultaneous things. One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment,' Harris said in the news release. 'There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.' The resident told Harris he's still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision, according to the university. The rock is the 27th meteorite in history recovered in Georgia and the sixth witnessed fall. Seeing a daytime fireball is a rare occurrence: Fireballs are easier to view at night, but must be much brighter to be visible during the day, the American Meteor Society says. It's also 'quite rare' for sonic booms to be heard on the ground when a fireball occurs, according to the organization. A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a magnitude over -4, which is brighter than Venus, according to the American Meteor Society. June's fireball reached a magnitude of around -14, the society told CNN, which would have made it brighter than the full moon. It didn't take the McDonough space rock pummeling through roofs for others to spot it. In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video showed a big flash of light falling through the sky on June 26. Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, previously told CNN she was driving home that June day when she saw a 'big flash in the sky come down and disappear.' She first thought it was a meteor that 'almost looked like a firework,' Eckard said. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing. The McDonough Meteorite is being stored at UGA for continued tests, according to UGA Today. Other pieces of it that fell on June 26 will be publicly displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. CNN's Devon Sayers, Brandon Miller and Zenebou Sylla contributed to this report.
CNN
2 days ago
- Science
- CNN
Meteorite that tore through southeastern US skies this summer determined to be older than Earth itself, researchers say
A meteorite that tore through the sky in June shaking the Southeast with a sonic boom is now believed to be 4.56 billion years old, according to researchers who studied it following its crash landing. Fragments of the extraterrestrial rock were turned over to scientists after they fell to Earth this summer to determine their classification and origin. The University of Georgia received 23 of the 50 grams of the McDonough Meteorite, named after the Georgia city where it ripped through the roof and ceiling of a home, according to the university. 'This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,' Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences' department of geology, said in the news release. Harris determined the meteorite to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite – a type of stony meteorite – and thus 20 million years older than Earth by 'using optical and electron microscopy,' the university said. 'It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago,' Harris said in the release. 'But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth's orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.' UGA is also working with partners at Arizona State University to submit the meteorite's name and findings to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society, Harris said. Harris also plans to publish a scientific paper about the rock to further understand the potential threats meteorites pose. 'One day there will be an opportunity, and we never know when it's going to be, for something large to hit and create a catastrophic situation. If we can guard against that, we want to,' he said. The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on June 26, CNN previously reported. The reports came during the Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level celestial event that was ongoing during the last week of June. A Henry County, Georgia, resident had reported at the time that a rock – which would later be identified as the McDonough Meteorite – fell through their ceiling around the same time the June fireball occurred, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. The object had broken through the roof and ceiling before cracking the flooring inside the home. 'I suspect that he heard three simultaneous things. One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment,' Harris said in the news release. 'There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.' The resident told Harris he's still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision, according to the university. The rock is the 27th meteorite in history recovered in Georgia and the sixth witnessed fall. Seeing a daytime fireball is a rare occurrence: Fireballs are easier to view at night, but must be much brighter to be visible during the day, the American Meteor Society says. It's also 'quite rare' for sonic booms to be heard on the ground when a fireball occurs, according to the organization. A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a magnitude over -4, which is brighter than Venus, according to the American Meteor Society. June's fireball reached a magnitude of around -14, the society told CNN, which would have made it brighter than the full moon. It didn't take the McDonough space rock pummeling through roofs for others to spot it. In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video showed a big flash of light falling through the sky on June 26. Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, previously told CNN she was driving home that June day when she saw a 'big flash in the sky come down and disappear.' She first thought it was a meteor that 'almost looked like a firework,' Eckard said. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing. The McDonough Meteorite is being stored at UGA for continued tests, according to UGA Today. Other pieces of it that fell on June 26 will be publicly displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. CNN's Devon Sayers, Brandon Miller and Zenebou Sylla contributed to this report.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
A meteorite crashed into a Georgia home. Scientists say it's older than the Earth itself
A meteorite that crashed into a Georgia home in June is older than the Earth itself, according to scientists who are studying the space rock. Onlookers in the Southeast were stunned when a fireball streaked across the sky on June 26. Fragments of the meteorite hurtled into the roof of a homeowner in McDonough, Henry County, just south of Atlanta, leaving behind a hole the size of a golf ball in the ceiling and a dent in the floor. Scott Harris, a researcher in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences' department of geology, has been studying the fragments and believes the meteorite formed 4.56 billion years ago. 'This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,' Harris said in a university news release. Using optical and electron microscopy to analyze the fragments, Harris said he believes the meteorite to be a low metal ordinary Chondrite. 'It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago,' Harris said. 'But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth's orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.' The sound and vibration the meteor made was equivalent to a close-range gunshot. The homeowner told Harris he's still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision. 'I suspect that he heard three simultaneous things,' Harris said. 'One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment. There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.' The meteorite, which has been named McDonough, is the 27th to be recovered in Georgia's history. 'This is something that used to be expected once every few decades and not multiple times within 20 years,' Harris said. 'Modern technology in addition to an attentive public is going to help us recover more and more meteorites.' Additional pieces of the meteorite that fell in the area will be displayed to the public at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Yahoo
Hazing can happen in the closest communities. Preventing it is harder than you'd think
Acceptance, rite of passage, and tradition continue fueling the age-old practice of hazing, making it prevalent on collegiate sports teams, among Greek life groups and at the high school level despite state and federal laws. This time, 11 teen varsity lacrosse players from Westhill High School in Syracuse, New York, are accused of plotting or participating in a prank late April – a staged kidnapping that unraveled quickly in what Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick called 'criminal activity' and 'hazing on steroids.' Now, one younger player is traumatized, and the older teammates were arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, all while law enforcement officials try to keep up with the fallout as the tight-knit community attempts to make sense of it all. While hazing has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, incidents like the one in Syracuse are reminders of how vague the true scope of hazing nationwide remains and the need for more tangible hazing prevention practices, experts and advocates say. Advocacy groups, sports teams and college websites have their own definitions of what constitutes hazing but the underlying intent of the practice remains the same across the board. Hazing is an activity that 'humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers' an individual seeking to join – or participate in – a group, 'regardless of the person's willingness to participate,' according to advocacy group StopHazing. Hank Nuwer, a professor emeritus at Franklin College and adjunct professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who has written several books on hazing, estimates there has been at least one hazing death reported in the United States every year from 1959 to 2021. The only year without any reported deaths was 2022, with more reported in 2023, 2024 and so far this year, Nuwer said. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist and the author of 'Preventing Hazing,' said there may be a disconnect between what most people think hazing and rites of passage are, and what students are facing. 'And what's actually happening is a lot more violent,' Lipkins said. Hazing deaths have become 'more hazardous' and are 'spreading in terms of, it's not just White college boys, but it's girls and minorities,' too, Lipkins said. Lipkins said students have told her the patterns and timings of hazing incidents are formulaic in that they occur at the same time of year with the traditions being largely similar but they are increasing in severity each year. More than half of students in the United States are hazed before they enter college, according to a 2008 University of Maine study, which is considered the only one of its kind painting — not a complete— but partial picture of hazing on college campuses. Once those students were in college, 73% of those who joined fraternities and sororities experienced what they described as some form of hazing at least once, the study found. Alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation and sex acts were common hazing practices across the different groups in which hazing occurs. Elizabeth Allan, a professor of higher education at the University of Maine who led the study and is now the director of the StopHazing Research Lab, said a new online survey is expected to be conducted and published in 2026. Allan and her research team hope to gain a deeper understanding of campus culture as they focus on more higher education institutions like historically Black colleges and universities, and include responses from campus staff, including deans of students, coaches, safety officers, Greek life advisers, and others, Allan told CNN. Hazing prevention can't be a one-size-fits-all approach and even getting students to open up about it is challenging, Allan said. So how do you get students to open up about hazing and self-report their experiences for the research? Allan says the key is to not ask directly. 'Instead you ask about certain behaviors,' she said. 'The behaviors would meet the definition, some, not all … some of the behaviors are positive group team-building behaviors that are non-hazing, but there are also many hazing behaviors that would meet the definition of hazing.' Getting students to report hazing is challenging because the practice thrives on the desire to connect with others, belonging, and secrecy through what Lipkins calls 'the code of silence.' When the code of silence is communicated directly, it directs members to remain tight-lipped about the group's activities, and it's also passed through stories of the past that create intimidation to make it clear to the people being hazed that if anything were to be revealed, it would result in trouble, according to Lipkins. For Allan, prevention can be custom-built by focusing on multiple fronts: public health strategies, skill-building techniques, research and of course, education and training as highlighted through a free, online workshop on StopHazing's site. 'It's not really focused on 'thou shall not haze,' it's more, how do we think about the groups we're in and the relationships we have with our teammates or with our fraternity brothers or with our band mates?,' she said. Lipkins, on the other hand, remains skeptical of any effective prevention methods. She said there's a lot of emphasis placed on focusing on student education, when it should really be on the adults and the systems and methods in which the students are educated. 'They (the adults) may write the policy, but in most cases, they're not actually enacting the policies,' she said. 'So I would say we have to start from the superintendent all the way down to any part of the school system, so that the bus driver is reporting … the school resource officer, the athletic trainer, the people cleaning up the mess that the kids are leaving.' Advocates and experts hope new research on hazing coupled with a newly enacted national law requiring colleges to share annual hazing statistics and reports will paint a clearer picture and prevent hazing. In December, former President Joe Biden signed the 'Stop Campus Hazing Act' into legislation, an amendment to The Clery Act, which says colleges must maintain and disclose campus crime statistics and security information. The Stop Campus Hazing Act requires colleges to post their hazing policy on its website and share which campus organizations have violated it – giving prospective students and their families a more informed look at groups they're interested in, outline how to report incidents and compile an annual report showing what organizations were found in violation of the school's policy, the act states. Here's a timeline of how the act is expected to be implemented, according to the Clery Center: January 1, 2025: Institutions should begin collecting hazing statistics to include in the annual security report. June 23, 2025: Hazing policies must be in place. July 1, 2025: Institutions must have a process for documenting violations of the institution's standards of conduct relating to hazing. December 23, 2025: The Campus Hazing Transparency Report, which includes the violations that institutions begin documenting in July, must be publicly available. The Campus Hazing Transparency Report must be updated at least two times a year. October 1, 2026: Hazing statistics will first be included in the 2026 annual security report (2025 statistics). At least 44 states have enacted anti-hazing legislation but their scope varies by state, according to data compiled by StopHazing. New Jersey, for example, has one of the strictest hazing laws in the country. Public and non-public middle schools, high schools, and colleges are required to adopt anti-hazing policies and penalties, and the state classifies hazing as a third-degree crime if it results in death or serious bodily injury. Jolayne Houtz wishes more information about hazing incidents at schools was publicly available when her son was in college. Her son, Sam Martinez, died in November 2019 of alcohol poisoning while he was a pledge of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at Washington State University, according to the Whitman County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. 'I worried about things like parties and alcohol and adjusting to life away from home a lot, and I didn't really think about hazing,' Houtz told CNN. 'And Sam paid for that with his life.' Martinez and another pledge were ordered to finish a half-gallon of rum between them, and Martinez's blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.372 after his death, almost five times the legal limit, his family previously said in a statement. Some former members of the fraternity were sentenced to several days in jail for providing alcohol at an initiation event to a minor, and Washington State University removed official recognition of the fraternity until May 2026. In January, the Washington State Court of Appeals ruled that the university bears responsibility for Martinez's alcohol-related death, marking the first time a university has been held accountable for a hazing-related fatality in the state of Washington, CNN affiliate KING reported at the time. CNN has reached out to Washington State University for comment. When her son said he was interested in joining the fraternity, Houtz said she searched online for information about it and only found positive things. 'All I found were the accolades and the talk about community service and the brand new fraternity house that they had just renovated,' she said. Houtz, who lobbied for state laws against hazing and the Stop Campus Hazing Act, along with others developed a database that lists hazing incidents in the US and said more efforts are needed to make sure families have access to information and prevention tools. 'If I'd known even a 10th of what I learned later, Sam would never have joined that that fraternity and maybe not that university, so I feel like anything that we can do to put data and information into the hands of parents and students will help protect them and prevent another tragedy like the one that we experienced,' Houtz said.
