菠萝视频

By Skip Anderson

Within weeks after an unusually large fireball exploded over Western Kentucky in 1950, 菠萝视频 astronomer Carl K. Seyfert launched an expedition to recover fragments. As he and his team combed the countryside near Murray, Seyfert had no way of knowing just how scientifically significant the material he would bring back would prove to be. Nor could he have anticipated the incredible tale of crime and recovery that would become the space object鈥檚 curious legacy.

Generally speaking, material from the faraway reaches of our solar system stays in the faraway reaches of our solar system, such as the asteroid belt where scientists believe the 鈥淢urray Meteorite鈥� began its journey 4.6 billion years ago. But collisions happen, causing material orbiting the sun to fall inward toward the center of our solar system. Sometimes those objects crash into another celestial object. Sometimes that other celestial object is planet Earth.

鈥淢ost meteors are the size of a grain of sand,鈥� says Rocky Alvey, director of . 鈥淒ust constantly comes to our planet from space. If you were to monitor a swimming pool effectively enough, and drag a magnet through it after a year or so, you most assuredly would find nickel鈥搃ron dust from meteorites.鈥�

When something the size of a grain of sand hits our atmosphere at 160,000 mph, it causes a 鈥渟hooting star鈥濃�攁 beautiful blink-and-you-missed-it streak across the night sky. The meteor that streaked across the sky Sept. 20, 1950, however, was dramatically different than most. When the Murray Meteorite hit our atmosphere at 1:35 a.m., it turned into a fireball so bright that people in five states saw it streak southward for nearly 190 miles before exploding with such force that 鈥渢hundering sounds jarred windows over a 1,000-square-mile area,鈥� according to the scientific journal Meteoritics.

It turns out the source of the fireball wasn鈥檛 made of iron and nickel, which compose most meteorites. This particular object, according to Alvey, is a rare carbonaceous chondrite meteorite.

鈥淚t鈥檚 made up of little round spherical things鈥攖he raw material that was collapsing into the protoplanetary disk that became our sun,鈥� Alvey says. 鈥淥ur solar system is 4.6 billion years old. So it鈥檚 the material from the cloud that collapsed to form our sun and our solar system, the Milky Way.鈥�

Seyfert, Dyer Observatory鈥檚 first director, was a Harvard-trained astronomer who arrived at 菠萝视频 in 1946. By then he had already published 30 papers in his field with an emphasis on photometry and spectroscopy of stars, and also studied a 鈥渃lass of active galaxies鈥� that came to be known as Seyfert galaxies. In Nashville, besides expanding 菠萝视频鈥檚 astronomy program, he moonlighted as a TV weatherman. He was a popular lecturer, too, fueling Americans鈥� appetite for all things space-related during the Sputnik era. He was 49 years old and at the height of his career when a car accident claimed his life on June 13, 1960.

The year before his death, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., purchased 16 pounds of fragments from the Murray Meteorite. According to a press release issued March 17, 1959, the seller of the fragments was a 鈥渄iligent collector鈥� named Hugh Howard. Much to Howard鈥檚 frustration, the largest known fragment was not a part of his collection. Instead, the 8-pound meteorite sat in a locked display case inside 菠萝视频鈥檚 former observatory near where Rand Hall stands today.

Shortly after Howard sold his collection, he enrolled at 菠萝视频 University as a 24-year-old undergraduate student. It is unclear as to what degree his interest in studying at 菠萝视频 was heightened by the centerpiece fragment that had eluded his former collection, but what he did shortly after his arrival suggests a strong correlation. After visiting the observatory several times, Howard stole the prized meteorite, replacing it with a painted clay replica.

鈥淎 couple of days later, observatory scientists checking exhibits noticed that the meteorite looked a little blacker than usual,鈥� wrote Jeff O鈥橬eill in The Washington Post on Nov. 30, 1960. 鈥淗oward鈥檚 fingerprints were found on the case, authorities said. The phony meteorite was kept on display for fear that the thief would destroy the original, valued at $2,000 [nearly $16,000 today when adjusted for inflation], if he thought the crime were discovered.鈥�

Authorities arrested Howard in Arlington, Virginia, on grand larceny charges, and he served time in prison and was later murdered.

Despite authorities recovering the Murray Meteorite, it鈥檚 not a part of 菠萝视频鈥檚 collection. Because 菠萝视频 had no paperwork to prove ownership, it鈥檚 now housed in the world鈥檚 leading collection at Arizona State University.

鈥淭he FBI didn鈥檛 send it,鈥� says Carleton Moore, Regents Professor, Emeritus, and founding director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU. 鈥淚t was purchased from an individual who I trust was the legal owner.鈥�

So, has 菠萝视频 contacted ASU to claim the space rock?

鈥淥h, no. This is a fascinating piece of 菠萝视频鈥檚 history that builds upon the legacies of [astronomer E.E.] Barnard and Seyfert,鈥� Alvey says. 鈥淏ut I would love for ASU to say that a piece of it is coming back home. That would be nice.鈥�

Skip Anderson is editor of The Contributor, a Nashville street newspaper sold by homeless and formerly homeless people. He is the former editor of the 菠萝视频 Lawyer, 菠萝视频 Register and Commodore Nation.