Bath Furnace ( Russian: Bat Fernis ) is a class L6 meteorite that fell on November 15, 1902 at 18:45 CST (November 17 at 00:45 UT) near the abandoned Bath Furnace settlement in eastern Kentucky , USA , 50 miles east of Lexington . The mass of the largest instance found is 75.3 kg . The fall of the meteorite was observed in the space from Georgia and Louisiana in the south to Ohio in the north, among the observers of the car there were two scientists (in Kentucky and Ohio) who compiled qualified reports. The trajectory (Miller, 1903) was directed 13 ° north of the east direction (that is, the azimuth of 77 °) and tilted 77 degrees to the horizontal. The bolide explosion point observed from Lexington had a height of 9 ° 30 ′ and an azimuth of 81 °.
| Bath furnace | |
|---|---|
| Find or fall | The fall |
| A country |  USA |
| A place | Kentucky |
| Latitude | 38 ° 15 'N |
| Longitude | 83 ° 45 'W |
| Discovery date | November 15, 1902 |
| Mass g | 75300 |
| Number of instances | 3 |
| Type of | L6 |
| Storage | a number of collections of the world, including Meteorite collection of RAS . The main part is Chicago. |
| Comment | 3 copies weighing about 75.3 kg, 5.9 kg and 0.223 kg. |
The first of the three pieces of meteorite found (weighing 5.9 kg) fell on the road and was found by local landowner Balford Staten the morning after the fall; he said that he had heard the sound of a fall resembling the sound of a saw. Another part of the meteorite (weighing 223 g) was found 100 m west of the first. The largest part (75.3 kg) was found in May 1903 at about 1 3 ⁄ 4 miles to the south by a squirrel hunter, who drew attention to the damage to the oak tree into which the meteorite fell. Although other damaged trees were found in the vicinity of this point, no other parts of the meteorite were found, despite searches.
Initially, it was assumed that the meteorite belonged to the Leonid meteor shower , since it fell at the beginning of the activity period of this shower. However, this assumption was later discarded, since the Leonids are the remnants of a comet, while meteoritic bodies falling onto the Earth's surface are fragments of asteroids.
At the time of discovery, the meteorite became the third largest of all meteorites ever found in the western hemisphere.
Links
- Information from the meteorite collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Henry A. Ward. The Bath Furnace Meteorite // The American Journal of Science. - 1903. - Series 4. - Vol. CLXV, art. Xxxii. - P.316-319. - DOI : 10.2475 / ajs.s4-15.88.316 .
- Henry A. Ward. Notes on the Bath Furnace Aerolite // PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. - 1905. - VOL. 4, PP. 193-202.
- Description of the meteorite on the website of the Center for Meteorite Studies of the University of Arizona .
- Photo of the third fragment found (the largest in mass).
- Arthur M. Miller. A BRILLIANT METEOR // Science. - 1903. - Vol. 17. - Issue 420, 16 January 1903. - P. 114-115. - DOI : 10.1126 / science.17.420.114-b
- Arthur M. Miller. ADDITIONAL FACTS CONCERNING THE BATH FURNACE METEORIC FALL OF NOVEMBER 15, 1902 // Science. - 1903. - Vol. 18. - Issue 451, 21 August 1903. - P. 243-244. - DOI : 10.1126 / science.18.451.243 .