Marissa Fanady
Marissa Fanady has been an active member of the meteorite community since 2011 as well as an active member of the astronomy community since 2010. During this time she has amassed the largest privately owned meteorite collection in Ohio, attends numerous outreach programs with a local astronomy club to educate the public about these rocks from space, and became the Publication Secretary for this astronomy club as well as a writer. She has traveled out to the American southwest to hunt for meteorites and became the first physically disabled individual to hunt for meteorites and was successful in her search. Marissa has the long term goal of returning to college to dedicate her life to studying and finding meteorites, continue to make meteorites accessible to everyone, and promote the education of meteorites and defense against future asteroid impacts.
Up Close and Personal
Not long after starting my meteorite collection an idea popped into my mind. Like most other people who just began a collection my purchases were small specimens. Some are so small that they are just a crumb; we call these micro amounts or micromounts. The whole purpose of collecting meteorites, for me, was […]
Why Study Meteorites?
Every single person in the meteorite community has been confronted with a question that we all face at some point in our meteorite career. There is no escaping or evading this question and it comes in various forms; the question is “why are you so interested in meteorites?” Sometimes people say “they’re just […]
The New Concord Meteorite Fall
On May 1, 1860 about 12:30pm a space invader made its debut over Washington County, Ohio and traveled Northwest towards Muskingum County. Meteorite Fragments rained down upon the town of New Concord Ohio and the surrounding areas.
The Willamette Meteorite
The Willamette meteorite was found in 1902 in the town of Willamette, Oregon and is classified as a type IIIAB medium octahedrite iron meteorite. This incredible space rock weights an astonishing 15.5 tons or 32,000 pounds, making this space gem the largest meteorite found in the United States and the sixth largest meteorite in the world!