BOLT FROM THE BLUE

Evening Star, Issue 18885, 9 March 1925, Page 9

BOLT FROM THE BLUE

A MYTHICAL METEOR

.Astronomers nro sceptical concern iivg the “ meteor as big as the moon,” which is said to have been seen from Milan. An Italian observer’s statement that “ if it fell on the earth it would submerge Western Europe” is quite _ within reason—if tbo “meteor’s” specifications were anything like those of tho moon, a body over 200 miles in diameter, and as solid as a rock.

But “ meteors ” are qnly visible when tey enter the earth’s” atmosphere to within some, fifty miles a hover the surface. A body comparable to tho moon at that distance would fill the sky and then fuse the whole globe. On the Mediterranean Coast of Africa there is a round hole in sandstone soil which has been attributed (unofficially) to (he impact of a mcteorjte. It is over 200 ft deep, and has a diameter of 450 ft.

If, really, this Domdaniel cavern was made by the fall of any skiey body, it must have been a big meteor as meteors go —lint a mere speck compared with Milan’s now “ moon.”

Tho Virginian meteor of May, 1923 (reported to have shaken tho globe palpably and to have made a hole in tho ground 24ft wide), is the biggest “shooting star ” story' of recent years. Apart from that, America has long held the world record. This is the Arizona aerolite—undated. The evidence of its arrival in prehistoric times is an earthcup or crater 550 ft deep and nearly 4,000 ft in diameter.

All round it are fragments of sandstone and meteoric iron, declared to be not of terrestrial origin. As detailed some months ago in the ‘ Daily Chronicle,’ excavations have been started for the, purpose of locating this bolt from tho blue. So far it has not been found.

England’s biggest meteorite is memorialised by a specimen in the Natural History Museum, labelled the “ Rowton Meteorite.” It fell at Rowton, ■ Shropshire, on April 20, 1878, and exploded as it fell. Tho fragment in the Natural History Museum only weighs 81b. but jt is a rare relic, being a mass of practically pure iron from tho outer spaces.