Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery

It was one of those bright Saturday mornings in February, 2004, when Paul and Linda Alastuey came to TCU cradling in their arm what they thought "might be a meteorite". Their son had found our web page and suggested they take the "meteorite" to Fort Worth even though it was a 300 mile round trip. Although not one to "jump the gun", I said as they entered "this looks like the real thing" because it had thumb prints on an otherwise smooth surface. Paul had plowed up this stone in April of 2003 and alertly noted it looked different from the other stones in the future wheat field.

On taking a slice off the broken bottom of the 20 pound stone, the "real thing" turned out to be a beautiful black chondrite with surprisingly little weathering. Subsequent electron microprobe analysis at the Smithsonian and microscopic analysis at TCU revealed the stone meteorite to be an H5 ordinary chondrite. On May 4, the stone was purchased by TCU and will be on display in the Monnig Meteorite Gallery. The name "Fife" (a small community 30 miles north of Brady, Texas) is pending before the International Committee on Naming.

— Dr. Arthur J. Ehlmann, Curator [pictured center]

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
The Monnig Meteorite Gallery has already proved to be a major attraction with local school groups and the general public. Since the opening in February of 2003, we have had approximately 8,000 visitors. For groups of ten or more, we provide guided tours. The guides give a narrated tour of the gallery and answer visitor questions. We are expecting to receive a large number of requests for tours by schools during the 2004 – 2005 school year. In addition, docents assist with our special community events. To ensure that we are able to meet this need, we are searching for people that would like to volunteer their time to serve as a docent.