Our Astronomical Column

Abstract

A METEORITE SEEN TO FALL AND FOUND.—It is not often that a meteorite is actually seen to fall to the ground, but this was the case with the specimen described by Messrs. Masumi Chikashige and Tadasu Hiki, in the Memoirs of the College of Science and Engineering, Kyoto Imperial University (vol. v., No. i, September,. 1912). It was at 6.30 on the morning of April 7, 1904, that the meteorite fell at the village of Okano, in the neighbourhood of the town Sasayama, in the province of Tamba, Japan. The white glowing mass was observed by a peasant, and when he came to the spot he found a stone which looked like a block of iron with the long point upwards, and imbedded about 80 cm. A teacher 30 km. to the north observed the meteorite also as a white glowing mass, at an altitude of about 70°. The chemical analysis, which is given in the paper, is as follows, in percentages:—Iron, 94.85; nickel, 4.44; cobalt, 0.48; copper, trace; phosphorus, 0.23. Thus nickel-iron amounted to 98.52 per cent., and phosphor-nickel-iron 1.48 per cent. This result is very similar to that obtained in the De Sotoville meteorite; namely nickel-iron 98.71 per cent., and phosphor-nickel-iron 1.29 per cent. The authors complete their monograph with three excellent plates showing the external appearance of the meteorite and sections before and after treatment.