Welcome to the Planetary Studies Foundation (PSF)

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Check your local listings for when Accidental Fortune is shown on TLC.

Hollywood came to Park Forest, IL, this past November. Very late in October, PSF received a phone call from Mary Benjamin from Mathis Productions based out of California. She had an assignment to come up with for a series on The Learning Channel (TLC). The series would feature episodes about people who received money out of nowhere.

Some of you may remember that on March 26, 2003 a meteor exploded over the Chicago suburbs of Park Forest, Streator, Crete and Olympia Fields. These cities were bombarded with varies size fragments. The main amounts of these fragments were found in Park Forest. The Planetary Studies Foundation was the first scientific organization at the scene. Paul Sipiera was busy identifying meteorites for the common individuals, until more PSF members could help him with the task. Jim Schwade was the first PSF member there to help Paul. They put in countless amount of hours at the Park Forest Police Station identify meteorites from meteor wrongs. It was history in the making. Thousands of dollars were changing hands, from collectors and dealers to sellers. In many ways, it was a blessing for most and a curse for others.

Mary asked if PSF would help her come up with a story line for her segment. She did a great deal of research on various people, but needed more information. PSF was able to give people’s names and phone numbers for her segment. Then on the weekend of November 15th, filming began in the city of Park Forest. The Park Forest Police Station and various Park Forest residents reenacted the entire event. The basis of the story stemmed from Paul Sipiera receiving the first phone call from WGN radio producer Jim Wiser. After four days of filming, the segment will be about eight minutes long. TLC aired “Accidental Fortune” on December 23, so be on the lookout for future repeats of this episode!

3...2...1...PSF BLAST!!!
We are pleased to announce PSF's latest communication tool, PSF BLAST. We have launched an email tool which will allow us to communicate electronically with friends of the PSF instantaneously. If you are interested in signing up for the free email communication, please send an email to Andrea Cosentino and you will be added to the list.