have arrived here. One such meteorite, found in Antarctica
and catalogued as ALH 84001, caused great interest when
claims were made that it contained tiny features which
could indicate Martian life. However, the evidence is at
best very slender. There are also tektites, small glassy
objects which seem to have been heated twice and are
aerodynamically shaped; they are found only in localized
areas, notably in Australasia and parts of the Czech and
Slovak Republics. For many years, they were classed as
unusual meteorites, but it now seems that they are of ter-
restrial origin, shot out from volcanoes.
One thing which we can do is to measure the ages of
meteorites. Most seem to be about 4.6 thousand million
years old, which is about the same as the age of the Solar
System itself. Pick up a meteorite, and you are handling a
piece of material which moved around between the planets
for thousands of millions of years before coming to its
final resting-place on the surface of our own world.THE SOLAR SYSTEM
SOME LARGE METEORITES
Name Weight, tonnes
Hoba West, Grootfontein, Over 60
Namibia, Africa
Ahnighito (The Tent), 34
Cape York, West Greenland
Bacuberito, Mexico 27
Mbosi, Tanzania 26
Agalik, Cape York, West Greenland 21
Armanty, Outer Mongolia 20
Willamette, Oregon, USA 14
Chapuderos, Mexico 14
Campo del Cielo, Argentina 13
Mundrabilla, Western Australia 12
Morito, Mexico 11 The Hoba West Meteorite,
photographed by Ludolf
Meyer. This is the heaviest
known meteorite. Fragment of the Barwell
Meteorite, which was
found in Leicestershire;
the meteorite landed on
24 December 1965. It was
widely observed as it passed
across England, and broke
up during the descent. It
was the largest meteorite
to fall in Britain in recorded
times; the original weight
may have been of the order
of 46 kilograms.D108-151 UNIVERSE UK 2003CB 7/4/03 5:20 pm Page 149