University of Chicago meteorite experts Lawrence Grossman and Steven Simon usually commute from Chicago's south suburbs to their laboratory on the Hyde Park campus to study rocks that have fallen from space. But at midnight the evening of March 26-27, a shower of meteorites came to them.
"I heard a detonation," said Grossman, a Professor in Geophysical Sciences who lives in the south suburb of Flossmoor, Ill. "It was sharp enough to wake me up."
Simon, a Senior Research Associate in Geophysical Sciences, lives in nearby Park Forest, where much of the meteorite fell. Simon, who works in Grossman's laboratory, spent the day collecting information from area residents who brought samples of the meteorite to the Park Forest police station.
Grossman said meteorites from the fall have been found in Park Forest, which is approximately 30 miles south of downtown Chicago, as well as the nearby communities of Steger to the south and Olympia Fields to the north. He said the meteorite is classified as a chondrite, a common type of meteorite.
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