Part 16

If you are especially interested in meteoritics, you already may have read some good books on general astronomy. There are many and most of them are not too advanced for the beginner. Unfortunately, these books devote but little space to meteoritics, the “Johnny-come-lately” of astronomy. Almost all of the writings on meteors and meteorites you will find largely profitable to read are in professional meteoritical publications. A selected list of such publications, containing much or at least a worthwhile amount of material you will now be able to understand, is given below. Your chief difficulty in using this list will be in finding some of the more important items in the holdings of your public library, unless it is a large and well-stocked one. Your librarian, however, may be able to help you get the item from some other library—perhaps from that of a nearby university or college.

METEORIC ASTRONOMY

MEBANE, A. D. “The Canadian Fireball Procession of 1913, February 9,” Meteoritics, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1956), pp. 405-421. Eyewitness accounts of the most famous fireball procession on record.

OLIVIER, C. P. Meteors, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1925. An exhaustive survey of work done by visual meteor-observers.

SCHIAPARELLI, G. V. Shooting Stars, a translation by C. C. Wylie and J. R. Naiden, published in the Proceedings, Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 50 (1943), pp. 48-153. A pioneer treatise, dated 1867, which is basic to later work in this field.

WHIPPLE, F. L. “Photographic Meteor Studies, I,” Proceedings, American Philosophical Society, Vol. 79, No. 4 (1938), pp. 499-548. Fundamental paper on the subject. Of the six meteors analyzed, five followed elliptical orbits and one, a strongly hyperbolic orbit.

METEORITES

FARRINGTON, O. C. “A Catalogue of the Meteorites of North America to January 1, 1909,” Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 13 (1915). Contains fascinating accounts of the phenomena connected with meteorite falls, interspersed with lengthy technical chemical and microscopic studies of meteorites.

FARRINGTON, O. C. Meteorites [published by the author], Chicago, 1915. The classic American work on meteorites. The first half of the book is popular; the last half is technical.

HEY, M. H. and PRIOR, G. T. Catalogue of Meteorites, William Clowes & Sons, London, 1953. An exhaustive catalog of all recognized and also, unfortunately, of many doubtful meteorite falls and finds, from the beginning of the historical record up to December 1952.

LAPAZ, LINCOLN. “The Achondritic Shower of February 18, 1948,” Publications, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 61 (1949), pp. 63-73.

LAPAZ, LINCOLN. “The Effects of Meteorites upon the Earth,” Advances in Geophysics, Vol. 4, edited by H. E. Landsberg, Academic Press, New York, 1958, pp. 217-350. A monograph covering such topics as meteorite hits upon buildings and people, meteorite detectors, and the nature and age of meteorite craters.

LEONARD, F. C. “The Furnas County, Kansas, Achondritic Fall (1000,400),” Contributions, Meteoritical Society, Vol. 4 (1948), pp. 138-141. This paper and the eighth item, above, discuss the phenomena of the fall of the largest aerolite so far recovered anywhere in the world.

MERRILL, G. P. “The Story of Meteorites,” Minerals from Earth and Sky, Vol. 3, Part I, Smithsonian Scientific Series, 1929, pp. 1-163. A chiefly popular survey of the subject by a master meteoriticist.

PERRY, S. H. The Metallography of Meteoric [meteoritic] Iron, U. S. National Museum Bulletin No. 184 (1944). A summary of knowledge on the subject, supplemented by exceptionally fine photographs of etched meteorite sections.

SWINDEL, G. W., JR., and JONES, WALTER B. “The Sylacauga, Talladega County, Alabama, Aerolite: A Recent Meteoritic Fall that Injured a Human Being,” Meteoritics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1954), pp. 125-132.

WHITE, C. S. and BENSON, OTIS O. (editors) Physics and Medicine of the Upper Atmosphere, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1952. See Chapter X, “Meteoritic Phenomena and Meteorites,” by F. L. Whipple, pp. 137-170; and Chapter XIX, “Meteoroids, Meteorites, and Hyperbolic Meteoritic Velocities,” by Lincoln LaPaz, pp. 352-393. Modern views on the meteorite velocity controversy.

METEORITE CRATERS

LAPAZ, LINCOLN. “The Craters on the Moon,” Scientific American, Vol. 181, No. 4 (1949), pp. 2-3. A popular exposition of the Bénard-Wasiutynski theory of the origin of the ordinary (nonrayed) craters on the moon.

SPENCER, L. J. “Meteorite Craters as Topographical Features on the Earth’s Surface,” Geographical Journal, Vol. 81 (1933), pp. 227-248. The classic paper on terrestrial meteorite craters.

METEORITIC DUST

BUDDHUE, J. D. Meteoritic Dust, The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1950. An account of the various techniques used in collecting and studying meteoritic dust; and also of the conclusions drawn from the study of such dust.

INDEX

A achondrites, 126, 163, 178 Adelie Land stone, 78 Adrar iron, 38, 40 aerolites, 178, 179 see also, stones, meteoritic age of meteorites and/or craters, 50, 52 Aggie Creek iron, 76 Ahnighito iron, 36, 128 Algoma meteorite, 75 “Alley Oop’s shillelagh,” 126 altitude, 88, 90, 105, 106 American Meteor Society, 116 American Museum of Natural History, 37 Anderson Township meteorites, 76 Andhâra stone, 147-8 Andromeda, Great Spiral Nebula in, 2 Andromedid shower, 153 anthills, meteorites in, 128 anti-matter, 58-60 Aouelloul crater, 65 appearance and disappearance of meteors, 86, 94, 106 applied science, 166 archeologists, 76, 150 areas of fall, 13-4, 24, 26, 32, 89, 94, 159 armor plate, 167 asteroid belt and orbits, 160-1 astronautics, 110, 168, 170-6 ataxites, 120 Athens, multiple fireball over, 149 australites, 134, 140 azimuth, astronomical, 88

B Bacubirito iron, 128 Bald Eagle iron, 76 ballistic potential, 171 Baxter stone, 73 Bear Lodge iron, 76 Beddgelert stone, 69-70, 73, 168 bediasites, 136, 137 Belly River stone, 131 Benares meteorite, 156 Bendego iron, 128 Benld stone, 73 Benson, O. O., 179 Bethlehem stone, 73 betyls, 148, 150 Bible, meteorite mentioned in, 147 Bielid shower, 116 “blackfellows’ buttons,” 134 Black Stone of the Kaaba, 147 Boisse, A., 160, 163 bolides, 102, 151 Braunau iron, 73 Brenham craters and meteorites, 52, 65, 66, 78 Box Hole Station crater, 65 Bridgewater meteorite, 75 British Museum, 136, 158 Buddhue, J. D., 179

C Campo del Cielo craters, 50, 65 Canyon Diablo crater, 44-52, 65, 66, 75, 96, 161, 162, 165, 174 Cape of Good Hope iron, 150 Cape York iron, 36, 37 Carlton meteorite, 75 Casas Grandes iron, 76 charms, meteorites used as, 134, 136 see also sacred meteorites; superstitions Chesterfield meteorite, 75 Chladni, E. F. F., 155-7 chondrules and chondrites, 124-6, 163 Chubb crater, 52-4 coins depicting meteorites, 148, 150 collection of meteorites in institutions, 20, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40-1, 90, 136, 158 comets, 114, 140, 164 composition of meteor-forming particles, 160-7 composition of meteorites, 118-26, 163, 179 composition of tektites, 136-8 Constantia stone, 74 contraterrene matter, 56, 58-60 convection-current hypothesis, 63-4 cosmic metal mine, 162, 174-6 cosmic rays, 168-71 craters, 17, 18, 20, 42-65, 66, 96, 143, 178, 179

D Dalgaranga crater, 65 daubreelite, 124 destruction by meteorites, 11, 15, 16-19, 54-7, 68-70, 73-4, 178 diamond-bearing meteorite, 82 direction measures, 23, 24, 86-9, 110 distribution of meteorites, 66-68, 72, 140-3, 159 dog and meteorite, 73 doubters of meteorites, 154-7 “dumbbells,” 135, 136 “dust balls,” 106 dust, meteoritic, 102, 116-7, 179

E “earth-rings,” 142 earth-trace, 92 eating a meteorite, 82 Einstein, A., 166 elements in meteorites, 118-24 elements in meteor-forming particles, 107 elevation, apparent, 88, 90 see also altitude “end-point,” 16, 86-91 Enrico Fermi Institute, 168 Ensisheim stone, 152, 154 Eta-Aquarid shower, 114 etching meteorites, 119-123 evaporation, see vaporization “explosions” of meteors and/or meteorites, 18, 23, 25, 55, 56-60, 63, 86, 92