Carl Agee gets tons of calls, packages and emails from people claiming to have had the rare experience of actually finding a meteorite – but most are what he calls meteor-wrongs – only terrestrial rocks.

But a couple weeks ago, 13-year-old Jansen Lyons walked into the institute Agee directs, the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritic, carrying what he said was a 2-pound hunk of space rock he found last September at an undisclosed location in the Albuquerque suburb of Rio Rancho.

Agee took a look. And sure enough, he confirmed last week, the teen had located a large “L6 ordinary chondrite” – a meteorite composed in part of nickel-iron metal – that Agee estimates had been on the ground for about 10,000 years.

Jansen told The Associated Press that he developed an interest in meteorites in 2008 after reading a book that belonged to his brother. Since then, his fascination skyrocketed so much his grandfather eventually designed and built him a metal detector to assist in his searches. Jansen now has three metal detectors.

“Meteorites are rare – it’s difficult to find them,” Agee said. “But to find a meteorite on a hike using a homemade metal detector – not to mention being only 13 – is frankly quite extraordinary.”

Los Angeles Times

Did walking technique move massive statues?

Archaeologists have long wondered how the Rapa Nui civilization of Easter Island quarried and moved their famous stone statues: The monoliths can weigh more than 80 tons and were not easy to lug around, especially because the islanders had no draft animals.

The most recent effort – described in the July issue of National Geographic – drew on the island’s oral tradition, which maintains that the statues stood up and walked. With that in mind, archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo tried moving a statue by hoisting it upright with rope and using three teams – two to push, one to stabilize – to swivel it forward.

They found that, by using the walking technique, as few as 18 people could move a five-ton statue a few hundred yards “relatively quickly.”

Washington Post