ASKED TO AID

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 271, 31 October 1932, Page 3

ASKED TO AID

HUNT FOB METEORITE. INVITATION TO FRANCE. Intensive exploration in the western part of the Sahara Desert to re-locate and study a great meteorite with an estimated weight of a million tons, has been recommended to the French Government by the commission on meteors of the International Astronomical Union, which held its fourth meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Charles P. Olivier, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, president of the Meteor Commission, presided. Further study of the other places where great meteors are known to have fallen, in Arizona and Siberia, also was recommended. \ The African meteorite, which is in the Adrar, in North Africa, and can be reached from Port Etienne, was described briefly some years ago, but has not been studied fully and its exact whereabouts is at present unknown, says the “New York Times.” Professor Jean Bosler, of the Observatory of Marseilles, stated that he believed a magnetic survey, using the same means employed to locate ore deposits, could probably locate the meteorite. He said that an expedient would be relatively simple, because the only danger to a scientific party would be from brigands, and protection could be obtained from them by French troops already in the region. Exploration of the Siberian meteor would be much more difficult, he said, because it can be reached only through miles of wild forest, where mosquitoes are particularly bad. Though the size of the Odrar meteor ■is not exactly known, it is about 100 metres (328 feet) long by 40 meters wide and 40 deep, he declared. Professor Olivier emphasised the importance to meteoric astronomy of finding such a mass. In particular, he said it would emphatically disprove theoretical conclusion that a mass of this size hitting the earth would instantly be dissipated into vapour. THE ARIZONA FALL. I'he spreading of such views, upon high scientific authority, Professor Olivier, stated, has caused a complete cessation of work to find the large mass

which is believed to have caused the meteor crater in Arizona. He announced to the group that two drill holes und.e> the Mouth wall of the Arizona crater had reached large masses, presumable of the meteor, and that a geophysical survey had indicated some large hmu' at the spot. Another recommendation of the Com mission was that the stations of the In ternational Polar Year, now making ob servations in the Arctic and Antarctic should attempt to collect atmospheric dust, and that this bo analysed to de termine the amount of meteoric dual present. Professor Olivier expressed the gratittude of the Commission for the co-ope ration of volunteer observers in collect iug observations of meteors. “Never before have so many people been working in this branch ul science,” he stated. He particularly cited the “inestim able service” of the daily Presa in America in securing the aid of laymen. During 1931, he said, 29,000 meteor ®bservatons were obtained by the American Meteor Society, of which he is president. This year the figure probably will be greatly surpassed, for in one week alone of the previous month 28,000 observations were reported. Professor Olivier also held out hope for a good meteor shower in November. ‘ ‘ During the past four years, the most important events in meteoric astronomy have been the good showers of the Leonids in 1930 and 1931,” he said in his report. “When these observations are added to the predictions based on eom potations of the pertubations, there is getod reason ti hope for an even better shower in 1932, perhaps rivalling that of 1866.”

ORGANISATION. Most of the sessions of the various commissions were concerned with problems «f organisation, at which the ever increasing development of astronomv was strikingly shown. The Commission on Solar Physics, of which Dr. C. E. St. Jojpt, of the Mount Wilson Observatory is president, voted a recommendation to the executive committee that it be subdivided into four commissions, each with its own organisation. These would deal respectively with sun spots, the sun’s upj -• atmosphere, solar spec troscopy, and radiation and eclipses. However the decision was by no means unanimous, for it was passed by a vote of 10 to 9. The Commission on the Physical Ob starvation of Planets, Comets, nnd Betel lites, all discussed separating coinef from their consideration and either placing them in a separate section, ns they had been formerly, or giving them to the section on meteors, with which comets are closely related. Speaking for the executive commit tee, Dr. E. W. Brown, of Yaye Univer sity, sa<S that it was desired to keep the number of commissions at a minimum. Already there are twenty-seymi.