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Updated: Martin Horejsi’s Meteorite Books Website A January 1, 1869 Witnessed Fall: Hessle, Sweden It’s a Baseball! It’s a Lollypop! It’s Gunpowder! Nope, it’s just a New Years Day Meteorite Like cosmic gumballs, licorice of course, these fell on New Years Day in 1869 just six degrees shy of the Arctic Circle. But because of where they fell, maybe they should be described as small Swedish meatballs. According to the Catalogue of Meteorites, the Hessle meteorite shower occurred on January 1, 1869 at about 12:30 pm. In a single content-dense sentence the rest of the story of the fall is presented. Or is it? Let’s start with the CoM entry and go from there. After detonations, a shower of stones, weighing from about 1.8kg to a few grams each, fell over an area about 3 x 9 miles; some fell upon ice a few inches thick without breaking it, and powdery, carbonaceous matter was found in association with the stones. A quick analysis of the description of the fall yields the following: There were loud noises preceding the fall. The fall was a shower of stones. The meteorites ranged from 1800g to a few grams. The Hessle strewnfield was 4.8km by 14.5km. Some meteorites landed on ice a few inches thick but didn’t break the ice. A powdery material was found with the stones. With a form similar to Holbrook (but with less metal and more surface texture) and Pultusk (same classification but with more contraction cracks), complete individuals, even sub-gram ones, are highly desired since there are only so many to go around, and their number can only go down. Each of the listed CoM details is an important fact about the fall, but without the rich background the facts fall far short of the real story. When reading an earlier account of the fall included in the book A Chapter in the History of Meteorites by Walter Flight, the elements of the Hessle story take on an entirely new life. And in this case anyway, open the door for one to take a somewhat humorous bend on the story. In this particular case, I will be doing the bending. First of all, consider that this fall landed shortly after noon on not just any old day, but on New Years Day. And a Friday in case you’re wondering. Now I think it is fair to give those winter loving Swedes the benefit of the doubt that the previous night some alcoholic libations might have been consumed in personal quantities somewhat beyond responsible moderation. Also, although they were hopefully not as apocalyptical as we are now, I’m sure a hail of stones falling from the sky, especially when said stones’ fall was preceded by thunderous roars from the heavens, might have caused a few tickers to beat a little faster as their owners wondered if the End was near (that’s End with a capitol E). And that goes double for those select individuals who missed certain death as the thunderstones collided with mother earth mere meters from where the church doors had just opened releasing the worshipers back into the custody of a cloudy afternoon. Now you can read into that church part what you want, but outside a direct lightening bolt strike, to me anyway, not much else screams Act of God as a sizzling hot chunk of rock flung from the asteroid belt right at your head. But back to the story. A few of the Catalogue facts ring hollow, or at least tinny under closer scrutiny provided by those who were there when the event occurred. Of course I was not among them, but the words provided by letters published by Mr. Flight cast a bright light on just how shallow our generalized descriptions are especially those of the auditory aspects of this phenomenon. For instance, the word “detonations” hardly captures the dynamic sounds produced by the Hessle meteorites. Remember that this was a shower, not just a fall. Now imagine, if you will, hearing a couple of bangs in the distance. Big deal right. Thunder? Dynamite? Military artillery? Tree falling? Glacier movement? Could be anything. Of course we know better today because we can look it up in the Catalogue of Meteorites 5th edition, right? Well what if you heard something that sounded like: “heavy peals of thunder, followed by a rattling noise as of waggons (sic) at a gallop, and ending at first with a note like an organ tone, and then a hissing sound.” Bit of a difference, eh? The total weight of the four similar sized pieces picture above is less than two grams. Fortunately that does not translate into value. Hessle stones, especially complete individuals, have been offered so rarely in the past that most collectors not only are missing the Hessle entry in their collection (except supermicros), but also have not had the opportunity to even consider acquiring a sample. Now lets take a closer look at the physics of the fall itself. First, the fall is named Hessle, presumably because that’s where it fell. Horseshoes, hand grenades, and meteorite falls. Close enough is good enough. The funny thing is that none of the residents of Hessle, according the Flight entry, observed the fall although a: “luminous meteor was noticed by observers at a distance.” Not bad, describing it as a meteor, given that the Hessle meteorite fall is the first reported in Sweden. But then again, airplanes are still a few decades off, and space aliens weren’t as popular to use as excuses as they are today. But I digress. The stones were reported to have been: “strewn over a line of country lying 30 degrees E. of S. towards 30 degrees W. of N.” Now I chewed on that sentence for quite a while before giving up and spitting it out. Pardon my vector analysis, but east of south? West of north? Can someone toss me a bone here? I must of cut class when my geography prof covered that one. One suggestion is that the terms southeast and northwest were lost in translation. Sounds reasonable to me. Now remember, this is 1/1/69 of the 1800s variety. The fall location is a full 60 degrees north of the equator just six degrees and some minutes south of the Arctic Circle, and just a few days after the Winter Solstice. In other words, it should be cold, yet the report states that the ice on a local lake, where some specimens just happen to fall, was only “a few inches” thick. A few years ago, I drug my family above the Arctic Circle in Finland (next door to Sweden) just to see what was up there. Plenty of trees. Plenty of mosquitoes. And plenty of cold. Yet as I type this here in my home just shy of 47 degrees north, and as it happens, also on New Years Day, its freezing outside! Everything is frozen. The creeks. The lakes. The pipes. Not that it’s like this every January first, but our lake ice is many times thicker then a few inches. The above comparision of the weather as of this writing in both Missoula, Montana and Uppsala, Sweden shows just how similar my town’s temperature is to that of where the meteorite fell. At least until the weekend when I’ll be wearing sunglasses and skiing fresh powder while my friends in Uppsala will be listening to the rain fall from a dark sky. Why does this matter, you ask? Well it was reported that the Hessle stones slammed into the frozen lake near an ice fisherman.