a colour out of space is a fictional extraterrestrial in the writings of the horror fiction author h. p. lovecraft. it first appeared in lovecraft's short story "the colour out of space" (1927). ==description== in lovecraft's story, the colours out of space are unknowable, non-humanoid extraterrestrial creatures who suck life out of all living things in the area. they arrived in a meteorite that fell in a rural area west of the fictional town of arkham, massachusetts, landing next to a well, on farmland belonging to nahum gardner. ===meteorite properties=== the meteorite possesses odd properties: * it wastes away when exposed to natural air. * it continuously produces significant amounts of heat. * it is unusually soft for something resembling rock. * no noticeable gases released when heated over charcoal. * no reaction to the borax bead test. * no apparent reaction to any producible temperature, including that of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. * highly malleable. * luminous. especially noticeable in dark surroundings. * spectroscopic analysis during heating resulted in shining bands unknown previously in the visible spectrum. * mostly immune from reaction to all laboratory-standard reagents, ranging from water to aqua regia. small and faint traces of widmanstÃ¤tten pattern appear on it in response to acid reagents. same reagents also slightly cool it. * generally accepted to be a metal of some sort. * possesses the qualities expected of a magnetic material. * affinity for electricity, to the point where it could divert lightning strikes to itself. * mutually damaging to silicon compounds. the colours inhabit small colored, fragile globules within such meteors, exhibiting the odd band of colors described above. a simple hammer tap is sufficient to break one open, resulting in no noticeable release of anything at all. ==environmental impact== they possess mutagenic properties. the crops on the farm near the impact site grew to great size and unnatural gloss, but this was useless as their taste was bitter, sour and unlikeable in the extreme. animals in the area were also affected, their bodies, behavior and activity showing hints of alteration, such as leaping distances well above their normal capability, malformed body proportions and appearances, and footprints in the snow of unnatural configuration. snow around the house melted faster than anywhere else nearby, and skunk cabbages of prodigious size and unusual color sprouted out of the soil. the trees budded early and were observed to be moving even with no wind of any sort. sprouting saxifrage bore the same unnatural hues as the cabbages. within a few months all plant life near the site took on unnatural properties and odd hues to the point where the road running near it fell into 
Cthulhu_Mythos_species