In December 2002 Graham Ensor travelled to Australia to see a total
solar eclipse. While down under he also visited the Gosse Bluff impact site in the central Australian
outback. It was there that he discovered some unusual magnetic black pebbles that he thought might
be related to the impact site. He was fortunate enough to discuss these pebbles with Dr G H Morgan of
the Open University's Beagle 2 Team when he delivered last year's Flamsteed Lecture
at The University of Derby. After it was decided the pebbles were not kangaroo droppings Dr Morgan invited
Graham to the Planetary & Space Sciences Research Institute at the OU in Milton Keynes. Graham and Mike Dumelow made
this visit on 3rd March 2004. They were given a two hour tour of the labs where meteorite analyses are performed
and the clean room facilities and labs where the Beagle 2 and some of ESA's Rosetta mission instruments
were developed. Dr Morgan ('Taff') made the experience very enjoyable and Graham and Mike were shown close ups
of the pebbles through the microscope by geologists at the lab. The scientists are still uncertain as to what the
pebbles are. They are definitely not meteorites or tektites and at the time of the visit Graham was awaiting the
results of thin sectioning.
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