* Astronomy

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Bells meteorite


New

Posts: 1
Date:
Bells meteorite
Permalink  
 




Hello

I found your posts regarding the Bells meteorite that hit Texas on September 1961. I was researching the incident as I was an eyewitness to the fireball. When I was 5 years old I was camping with my family in east Texas in north Hopkins county on our grandmothers property. I was woken up by it as it flashed by. I can not seem to find anything indicating the path it took. It lit up the night sky like the sun. My dad got real scared and thought the Russians were attacking. (LoL) e rushed back to my grandmothers house to see if the tv was talking about it.

Outside of my family I had never know anyone that witnessed it until last year. I happen to mention it to the owner of the company I have worked for for 28 years and low and behold he saw it too from a bowling alley parking lot in Dallas.

Thanks for your posts



Jim Smiddy


__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

A detonating fireball, September 9, 1961, over northeast Texas resulted in a fall of meteorites. By a prompt survey and long continued search some seven fragments totalling about 10 ounces were retrieved along a line some four miles long near Bells, Grayson County, Texas. The first fragment hit the roof of a house and was picked up next morning in a perfect, fresh state.

Read more



__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

Title: The soluble organic compounds of the Bells meteorite: Not a unique or unusual composition
Authors: Monroe, Adam A.; Pizzarello, Sandra

The Bells meteorite is a CM2 chondrite that has long been considered anomalous for having mineralogical and isotopic differences with CMs together with an overall affinity to CIs in its matrix. We extracted a fragment of the only Bells stone collected unweathered with water and solvents and studied the meteorite's soluble organic composition. We found Bells to contain abundant organic compounds, which are predominantly O-containing such as hydroxy- and di-carboxylic acids, and a scarcity of amino acids and other N-containing compounds. Amines were not detected and ammonia is less abundant than in both the Murchison and Ivuna meteorites. Overall, Bells' soluble organic composition is more similar to that of Ivuna than of Murchison. The observation that Bells' amino acid suite shares a distinct distribution of characteristic molecular species with other stones that are thought to have experienced extensive parent body aqueous alteration, such as the Orgueil, Ivuna and recently analyzed GRO 95577 CR1 meteorites, seems to allow the suggestion that such a composition is secondary to prolonged aqueous alteration processes that superseded some of the initial compositional distinctions determined by the asteroidal environments.

Read more



__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

The fall of the Bells meteorites was accompanied by a detonating bolide observed over the north-east part of Texas. Seven fragments with a total weight of about 280 gr were collected over distance of about 7.5 km. The first fragment hit the roof of a house and was picked up the following morning in a perfect state. The remaining specimens were found after a hurricane and rainfall in a more or less altered state. Two of these were substantially intact but the other four had shattered on impact or crumbled through weathering. The fragments, an even powder, were admirably picked up by Alnico magnet.
Read more (PDF, page 5)



__________________


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

The Bells (C2-ung) meteorite fell in Texas, USA, on the 9th September, 1961.
A total mass of 0.375 kg was recovered.

33° 36'N, 96° 28'W



__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard