A 379-pound nickel-iron meteorite made its debut this week at Kidspace Children's Museum, where it now occupies a prime spot in the museum's Boone Nature Exchange area.
The meteorite landed in Argentina and was discovered in 1570. It was donated to the museum by SuSan Nelson and Walter Witkowski.
It was unveiled Tuesday during a ceremony attended by local schoolchildren, community members, city officials and representatives from Caltech and Rep. Adam Schiff's office.
|
| ©Walt Mancini |
| Joseph Harrison, 4, of Pasadena looks at a 379-pound nickel-iron meteorite that has been added to the permanent collection in the Kidspace Children Museum's Boone Nature Exchange center. The meteorite landed in Argentina 10,000 years ago before being discovered by conquistadors in 1570. It belonged to a local private art collection in 2002 and was donated to Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena in 2008. |
But its significance appeared lost to schoolchildren who viewed it Wednesday.
Many of them were decidedly unimpressed by the space relic. With its deep brown color and copper flecks, it looked like just another rock, several kids said.
"It's just a rock. If you turn it to this side, the profile looks like a turtle," said second-grader Roy Marquez, 8, of Jefferson Elementary School, who spent several minutes petting the meteorite.
And even though museum officials had placed the meteorite on an elevated platform, that wasn't enough to entice many students, who simply ran past it. Some students even jumped on the platform before sprinting off.
Punam Bhakta, a Kidspace off-site education lead, said the meteorite exhibit comes at the end of the tour of the Nature Exchange, which has plastic trays of different minerals, rocks and shells and tables to study.
"The kids play and then they slowly come up to it," Bhakta said.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter