Astronomer Book
meteor train. Trains which last for several seconds may be subject to the
effects of high altitude winds and be seen to twist and distort.
Meteors vaporise away at least 40 miles above the ground and so can
do us no damage, but now and then Earth is struck by a larger body which
may weigh tonnes. This is known as a meteorite and is not connected
with meteors. They come from the asteroid belt and there may be no
essential difference between a very large meteorite and a small asteroid.
Meteorites are generally stone, iron or a mixture. Hunting for
them is an engaging hobby, but beware, a meteorite does not always
betray its nature at fi rst sight. In the 1980s a meteorite fell in Barwell
in Leicestershire. Patrick Moore knew where it had come in and
calculated where to fi nd it. He went to see the local farmer and requested
permission to look in his fi elds. He was amenable and before long Patrick
found an excellent meteorite fragment, which now sits in his study, and is
bequeathed to a museum.
There are other problems too. Patrick once produced a television show
about meteorites and mentioned that some people like to search for
them. People sent in their fi nds, and one particularly intriguing meteorite
turned out to be a fossilised Bath bun. The largest known meteorite is still
lying where it fell at Hobart West in Africa – weighing over 60 tonnes.
Others have fallen and produced craters, essentially similar to those
on the Moon, but smaller. The fi nest is Meteor Crater in Arizona. Fi y
thousand years ago the meteorite struck Earth and le the giant crater.
It is easily reached from Highway 99 and there is a museum on site. It
was once possible to scramble down the wall into the crater, but this was
stopped when one visitor fell and injured himself. Patrick did one TV show
there and was dropped into the crater by helicopter, entirely alone in the20 [19]across the constellation of Cygnus. A Perseid meteor imaged sweeping
[20] Shower radiant: the meteors in this
shower appear to originate from one place in
the sky (Chen Huang-Ming).
[21] Metorite found in 1516.
[22] Part of the Barwell Meteorite.212219