Just something different - a possibly interesting story for a Wednesday morning.
This is a close up of a meteorite, which hit the Medical Arts building, located on State Street, across from the old Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, just south of the current Baptist Hospital building.
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Here is a short mention of the occurrence in Jackson Daily News. The building superintendent mentioned here was my father. There was a longer story - maybe in the State Times, with my dad's photo pointing to the impact point, but I don't seem able to find it.
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Here is the granite panel on ground floor rear/back side of the medical office building, showing the damage to the granite panel where the meteorite hit.
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Another view, I took the photos shown here in 2019. The impact to the building took place on August 29, 1959, but the damage remains.
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After damaging the stone panel, the meteorite continued on through the plate glass window and impacted the floor inside the office, where it broke into multiple pieces and then continued on to imbed in the wall across the office. The piece shown here is the biggest fragment.
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There was a time when 35mm photographic film came in small metal cans. This is the can my dad used for many years to store his meteorite and a second photo showing the fragment beside the metal film can lid.
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The meteorite was analyzed (a Milsaps professor sent it off for analysis and had to be threatened by my dad months later to convince him to return it) and found to be nickel iron. You can see the surface, distorted while the metal was in a molten state. 1959 was pre-satellites, so the debris would not have been from a satellite falling out of orbit.
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The piece shown here is approximately 1 inch square. My belief is that the angular edges (Square shape) was the result of the molten meteorite fragmenting when it hit the building wall and the floor. As stated, this is the largest fragment. My dad said there was a second, slightly smaller piece and many other small fragments. If my memory is correct, he said the other fragments were taken as evidence by the police. I wonder if they are in a box in an evidence room somewhere.
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The meteorite, at home in the film can. Meteorites are somewhat common and actually are not worth much (not actually valuable). However, I have never shown this fragment to a collector who didn't offer to buy it or want to keep it. Sometimes, I wonder if the old Kodak film can is more of a collector's item than the meteorite.
View attachment 15941
Thanks for looking.
This is a close up of a meteorite, which hit the Medical Arts building, located on State Street, across from the old Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, just south of the current Baptist Hospital building.
View attachment 15931
Here is a short mention of the occurrence in Jackson Daily News. The building superintendent mentioned here was my father. There was a longer story - maybe in the State Times, with my dad's photo pointing to the impact point, but I don't seem able to find it.
View attachment 15932
Here is the granite panel on ground floor rear/back side of the medical office building, showing the damage to the granite panel where the meteorite hit.
View attachment 15933
Another view, I took the photos shown here in 2019. The impact to the building took place on August 29, 1959, but the damage remains.
View attachment 15934
After damaging the stone panel, the meteorite continued on through the plate glass window and impacted the floor inside the office, where it broke into multiple pieces and then continued on to imbed in the wall across the office. The piece shown here is the biggest fragment.
View attachment 15935
There was a time when 35mm photographic film came in small metal cans. This is the can my dad used for many years to store his meteorite and a second photo showing the fragment beside the metal film can lid.
View attachment 15936
View attachment 15938
The meteorite was analyzed (a Milsaps professor sent it off for analysis and had to be threatened by my dad months later to convince him to return it) and found to be nickel iron. You can see the surface, distorted while the metal was in a molten state. 1959 was pre-satellites, so the debris would not have been from a satellite falling out of orbit.
View attachment 15939
The piece shown here is approximately 1 inch square. My belief is that the angular edges (Square shape) was the result of the molten meteorite fragmenting when it hit the building wall and the floor. As stated, this is the largest fragment. My dad said there was a second, slightly smaller piece and many other small fragments. If my memory is correct, he said the other fragments were taken as evidence by the police. I wonder if they are in a box in an evidence room somewhere.
View attachment 15940
The meteorite, at home in the film can. Meteorites are somewhat common and actually are not worth much (not actually valuable). However, I have never shown this fragment to a collector who didn't offer to buy it or want to keep it. Sometimes, I wonder if the old Kodak film can is more of a collector's item than the meteorite.
View attachment 15941
Thanks for looking.
