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IT Wire Duane Hamacher, a doctoral candidate at Macquarie University, used ancient folklore from an Australian Aboriginal people and modern Google maps to locate a meteorite crater in central Australia. 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. It was called Ouka. 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. They have lived in the region for at least 20,000 years. Previous to Hamacher's work, the impact crater, which was made by a meteorite millions of years ago was unknown to scientists. 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] 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] Hamaher and his team of astronomers are proposing to call the newly found crater Puka, after the waterhole in which the meteorite fell into millions of years ago, or possibly Ouka after the Arrernte story from which it was found by Hamacher. 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.
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