Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-12-21
FROM SPACE !:
Wonderful Meteorites That Drop
TO Us Out of the Sky.
ONCE REGARDED AS SACRED.

In the EARLY Days They Were OBJ
iects OF Reverence and Worship,
as Is the Famous Stone at Mecca To-
day-Their Fiery Flight to Earth.
Ia considering the wonders of the
universe have you ever realized how
conspicuous among them are the me-
teorites, those wonderful messages
dropped from the sky for us to wonder
at and study? They are the only ma
terial objects which come to the earth
from the vast outer world.
Among the collections shown in the
National museum at Washington is a
remarkably line exhibit of meteorites.
1t includes complete meteorites rang
ing in size from the merest pebbles to
great boWlderlike masses and casts re
producing giant forms like that of Ba-
cubirito, which has been estimated to
weigh twenty-five tons and still rests
where it fell in Mexico.
The National museum has issued a
handbook and descriptive catalogue OF
the meteorite collections in the mu-
scum, written by DR., George p. Mer-
rill, head curator of geology, from
which the following is an abstract:
Although m~eteorites presumably have
fallen since time immemorial. skep-
ticism was felt at first by both the
popular and scientific minds regarding
,hp 1anG-f1,flstiD, Of r+Npn- f., 1'fftT from,
space, In the few early recorded cases
where meteorites seen to fall We're re-
covered they were regarded as objects
of reverence and worship. A stone
which fell in ancient Phrygia, in Asia
Minor, about 200 years before Christ
was worshiped as Cybele, the mother
of the gods. Another. which dates
back to the seventh century. is still
preserved at Mecca, where it is built
into the northeast orner of the Ka'a-
ba and reyered as II of the hottest of
relics. The great Casas Grandes iron,
weighing about 5000 pounds, now in
the national collection at Washington,
WAS found in an ancient Mexican ruin
sWatAod in mummy clothes in a man
ner to indicate that it was held i'll
more than ordinary veneration by the
prehistoric Inhabitants.
The earliest known %undoubted me
t~eoritcs still preserved are those of
Elbogen, Bohemia and E~nsisheim, Up
per Alsace. The first mentioned is
iron, the second a stone. The iron was
found somewhere about the year 400
of our era. The Ensisheim stone, seen
to fall on Nov. 16, 1892, about the time
Columbus made his discoveries, was
accompanied with q loud crash like
thunder. Portions of this stone are to
be seer in the National museum ex-
hibit.
The fall of a meteorite is usually ac-
companied by noises %variously describ-
ed as resembling the fire of musketry,
-cannonading or even thunder. If the
fall takes place during the periods of
darkness it is also accompanied by a
fash of light and followed by a lumi-
nous rocket-like trail. These phenome-
ma are due to the rapid passage Of the
objects through the air and u colse-
quent rise in temperature, sufficient to
produce fusion of the outer surface
and ever ignition, thus giving rise to
the thin, dark. glasslike crust which
is found to cover all stony meteorites.
The time of passage through the at
mosphere is, however, too short to per
NIT the heat to penetrate to great
depths, and nearly all meteorites are
quite cool, OF scarcely warm, on reach
ing the surface of the ground. 1t is
to the sudden rise in temperature and
pressure of the atmosphere that the
breaking UP of a meteorite and It's
reaching the ground as a shower of
fragments rather than a single individ-
ual are due.
We have little to guide US in estimat-
ing the speed at which a meteorite
reaches the earth and it's consequent
power of penetration. The velocities
as given by various observers vary be.
tween two and forty-five miles a sec
ond. The greatest recorded depth of
penetration of a meteoric stone is that
of knyahinYa, Hungary, where a 66O
pound stone penetrated to a depth of
eleven feet. On the other hand. still
heavier masses have been found under
such conditions as to lead one to infer
that they scarcely buried themselves.
All statements relative to the temper
allure of meteorites Immediately after
reaching the ground must be accepted
e%uardedly, owing to their extremely
contradictory character. Some stones
which fell in Syria in 1859 are stated
to have remained in a state of incan.
d%escence for i've five seconds and for
a quarter of an hour We're too hot tc
be banded. On the other hand. the
Dhurmsala stone is said to have been
intensely cold when picked up immedi-
Rtely after FILLING.
The largest known meteoric mass is
that brought by Commander Peary
from Cape York, Greenland. It weigh.
ed $4,000 pounds. The next largest
lies in the plain near Bacubirito, in
Mexico, and has been estimated to
weigh some 10000 pounds. while the
third is that of Willamette, Ore,
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