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Hamacher considers himself an educator within the field of astronomy. He is associated with the Sydney Observatory and the Foundation for Astronomy at Macquarie University.
He investigates how the Australian Aboriginal peoples have incorporated the darkened sky above their lands into their ancient cultures.
Duane Hamacher looks at paintings, stone arrangements, historical literature, and other ancient folklore to understand their cultures with respect to astronomy, archaeoastronomy, and ethnoastronomy.
And, with his education, experience, and expertise at investigating the Aboriginal peoples, Hamacher has incorporated ancient Arrernte dreaming stories and modern Google maps to find a bowl-shaped meteorite crater at Palm Valley.
Palm Valley is located about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Alice Springs, which is located near the southern border of the Northern Territory, and near the geographical center of Australia.
The traditional inhabitants of the area, the Arrernte, live in the Central Australian desert around the Alice Springs area.
And, the ancient story that led Hamacher to the discovery of the impact crater came from the Arrernte people. [edited by author on 12/29/09, per Mr. Hamacher's inputs]
Page two continues.
The Arrernte people, also called as the Aranda or Arunta, are indigenous Australians who live in the central region of Australia around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
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Previous to Hamacher’s work, the impact crater, which was made by an impact of a meteorite (possibly) millions of years ago was unknown to scientists before Hamacher's discovery. [edited by author on 12/29/09, per Mr. Hamacher's inputs]
The ancient stories told by the local Arrernte people described how a star had fallen into a waterhole called Puka.
So, Hamacher found the crater by following the descriptions in these traditional Arrernte stores.
According to the December 28, 2009 ABC News article “Google dreaming locates hidden crater," Hamacher was quoted to have said: "The particular Western Arrernte story talked about a star that fell from the sky, making a noise like thunder and crashed into a waterhole in Palm Valley."
He adds, “What I decided to do was look on Google Earth, Google Maps and check that area out and see if there was any impact crater that could be seen.” [ABC News]
Page three concludes.
And, "There happened to be a giant bowl-shaped structure right smack in the middle of Palm Valley that looked just like a meteorite crater." [ABC News]
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Upon finishing his research, Hamacher is expecting to write a scientific paper within the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, the journal of the Meteoritical Society.
For additional information on this story, along with a picture of the crater site, please go to the 12.28.2009 Sydney Morning Herald article “Google, Dreaming lead to ancient crater.”
Learn more about the Arrernte people at the Agreements, Treaties, and Negotiated Settlements Project (ATNS) website, which features the Arrernte.
[Note by author: Per Mr. Hamaher's valuable inputs we have learned more about this crater discovery in central Australia. I agree with Mr. Hamaher that media news stories are limited in the amount of information they can relay to their audience. Such news stories (especially in science) are summaries of more detailed articles, often times from highly technical sciencific journal articles. Science writers highlight the major points of such articles and try to relay the information so that non-experts in the field can understand the material. We do that well in some cases, and not-so-well in other cases. However, in all cases we are the conduit between scientists and the public. More information will be forthcoming from Hamaher's journal article, which I look forward to reading and reporting. Thank you Mr. Hamaher for your responses! - William]
