 | This is a 28-pound fragment of the meteorite that fell over Weston, Connecticut, in 1807 — the first recorded fall of a meteorite. |
The 200th anniversary of one of the nation’s most famous “shooting
stars” will be celebrated in December at Yale’s Peabody Museum
of Natural History.
T H I S
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Museum celebrates 200th anniversary
of the fall of the ‘Weston’ meteorite
At 6:30 on the morning of Dec. 14, 1807, early risers in Vermont and Massachusetts
saw a blazing fireball about two-thirds the size of the moon traveling southward.
Three loud explosions were heard over the town of Weston, Connecticut, and stone
fragments fell in at least six places. This was the first recorded fall of a
meteorite in the New World and the beginning of Yale’s meteorite collection,
the oldest in the United States.
The largest known surviving specimen of the Weston fall, a 28-pound specimen
known as the Weston meteorite, is on permanent display in the Peabody Museum’s
Hall of Minerals, Earth and Space.
The museum will mark the bicentennial of the meteorite’s discovery with
two events:
Karl K. Turekian, professor of geology and geophysics and curator of the Peabody’s
Division of Meteorites and Planetary Science, will give a talk on “The
Weston Meteorite and Understanding Origins” at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec.
4. The Yale professor will explain what these objects from outer space reveal
about the composition of planet-forming materials, the age of the solar system,
and much more. The event is free and open to the public.
The following two Saturdays, Dec. 8 and 15, the museum will host hands-on displays
of meteorites 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Experts will be on hand both days to offer demonstrations
and answer questions. These events are free with museum admission.
At the forefront of meteorite science
In addition to enriching — eventually — the Peabody Museum’s
collection, the Weston meteor crash helped establish Yale professor Benjamin
Silliman (1778-1864) as the nation’s first scientist in the field of meteoritics.
Silliman, who was both a professor of chemistry (Yale’s first, appointed
in 1802) and a professor of natural history, was on the scene of the Weston fall
within days. He and a Yale colleague, Professor James L. Kingsley, collected
small fragments of each large stone that fell. (Most of the pieces had been smashed
by visitors to the site in a fruitless effort to find gold and silver.)
Kingsley and Silliman published a detailed description in the Connecticut Herald
of the fireball, the explosions (which were heard more than 40 miles away) and
the fall of the stones. Silliman also conducted a chemical analysis of the meteorite — the
first ever performed in the United States and one of the first few in the world.
A revised version of the scientists’ report, which included the chemical
analysis, was read before the American Philosophical Society in March 1808 and
published in its journal, Transactions, the following year. Readings followed
at the Philosophical Society of London and the Academy of Sciences of Paris.
The Weston event became recognized internationally as one of the best-attested
occurrences of its kind.
Peabody information
Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, at 170 Whitney Ave., is open
Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors age 62 and over, and $5 for children
ages 3-18 and college students with I.D. Children under age 3 are free as are
all visitors on Thursdays from 2 to 5 p.m. For additional information, visit
www.peabody.yale.edu or call the Infotape at (203) 432-5050.
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