Who is Corky Marlinson from Deception Point and what is their importance?

Corky is an astrophysicist and one of the four civilian scientists that President Herney sends to the Arctic to verify the authenticity of the meteorite. Corky is very committed to the meteorite data and often disagrees with Michael and Rachel's alternate explanations for how the characteristics of the sample he has could make it a Earth terrestrial rock. Corky is adamant that the sample is from a meteorite.

Corky is a fun character, with a great sense of humor that he often uses at Michael's expense, cracking jokes about the oceanographer. Corky is the one who has taken the core sample from the meteorite that they examine and eventually test to discover that the meteorite is a fake.