Some Will Go Far to Catch a Falling Star Henner Busemann Enjoys a Hymn to the Passionate Collectors Who Fuelled the Science of Meteorites

Vol 462|26 November 2009 BOOKS & ARTS Some will go far to catch a falling star Henner Busemann enjoys a hymn to the passionate collectors who fuelled the science of meteorites. The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of into legal disputes. Farmer Ellis Hughes, for and he is considered one of the leaders of Shooting Stars example, was convicted of theft after ‘recov- modern meteorite research. Yet Nininger’s by Christopher Cokinos ering’ the famous Willamette iron meteor ite hopes for an appointment as a professor for Tarcher/Penguin: 2009. 528 pp. $27.95 from private land in 1902. The 14-tonne main meteoritics never materialized. Traduced as chunk of this is now in the American Museum a collector with merely commercial interests, of Natural History, New York. Nininger struggled to earn enough to sup- Meteorites — rocks that ‘fall from the sky’ — Cokinos’s efforts culminate in three splendid port his family yet managed to accumulate an fascinate and inspire. The origin of these dark, chapters. One concerns pioneer Harvey Ninin- impressive private collection of meteorites. often strangely sculpted boulders that might ger, a biologist from Kansas who was the first Cokinos conveys his excitement at visiting suddenly dent a ploughed field or demolish to systematically trace and collect meteorites Nördlingen, a picturesque medieval town in a roof has long been disputed. Yet the global in the United States. Cokinos gives a thrilling the south of Germany, built within a meteorite consequences of meteorite impacts have only description of Nininger’s crater of some 20 kilome- recently been accepted. It took the efforts of a epic fight to raise aware- “Jealousy, personal tres in diameter that formed few visionaries — mostly non-academics who ness of the importance of animosity and a struggle around 15 million years had to endure scholastic resistance, sarcasm meteor ites as extraterrestrial ago. The town’s centuries- and slander — to demonstrate that rocks on rocks, and his education of for fame have often old church is made entirely Earth can come from asteroids, the Moon, US rural populations in how accompanied the chase.” of suevite rock formed by Mars and comets; that their fiery crashes cre- to recognize meteorites on the impact, and offers a full ated giant craters; and that such bombard- their farmlands. Hundreds of his samples, panoramic view of the crater rim from the ment was important for the development of including rare specimens essential to meteor- steeple. Yet it wasn’t until 1960 that US scien- life on Earth. iticists, are now held by the British Museum, tists Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao Christopher Cokinos, a creative-writing proved that the Nördlinger Ries crater was teacher at Utah State University, erects a monu- created by a meteorite impact. ment to these dedicated pioneers in The Fallen Finally, Cokinos describes his participation Sky. As well as telling their personal stories, in an annual excursion to Antarctica to collect he covers a comprehensive range of topics in meteorites — organized by researchers William meteorite science — from the observation and Cassidy and Ralph Harvey and mountaineer M. SEGAR/REUTERS evaluation of fireball trajectories to the John Schutt, among others. Since the 1970s, discovery of meteorites, their trans- scientists supported by the US National Science port, classification, conservation Foundation have sought meteorites in the per- and ownership. He also assesses petual ice, where the strange rocks can be easily the rocks’ commercial, scien- recognized and also accumulate as a result of tific and spiritual value. being transported through the ice sheet. Coki- Because of their celestial nos’s detailed description of the pleasures and origin and rarity, meteorite discomforts of such an extreme expedition is hunting kindles strong pas- somewhat overdone, though highly recom- sions. Jealousy, personal mended to all potential candidates. animosity, commerciali- The Fallen Sky is an inventive intro- zation and a struggle for duction to meteoritics and contains a fame and possession wealth of scientific, historic and bio- have often accompanied graphic information. It will suit the chase. Cokinos retraces both general readers and plan- the footsteps of the first US etary scientists who, swamped meteorite ‘addicts’, such as by detail, might have lost the explorer Robert Peary, who track of the basic motiva- transported the Cape York iron tion for their research. ■ meteorites from Greenland in Henner Busemann is an the 1890s, and Daniel Barringer, STFC Aurora Research a mining-company owner who Fellow in the School of Earth, purchased Meteor Crater in Atmospheric and Environmental Arizona in 1903 in the hope Sciences at the University of that a large lump of iron Manchester, Oxford Road, could be found there. Manchester M13 9PL, UK. The desire to possess e-mail: henner.busemann@ a meteorite led others Collector Marvin Killgore with the Fukang meteorite, which could be as old as the Solar System. manchester.ac.uk 414 © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

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