Old News in Astronomy

Old News In Astronomy

Meteorite Falls In China

The 3,894 pound Kirin meteorite is shown with some of the fragments which broke off on impact. The fall, which took place around 4.p.m. on March 8, scattered fragments over a 200 square mile area. The Kirin meteorite broke the previous world’s record of 2,372 pounds which was attributed to a 1948 meteorite which fell in a cornfield in Norton County, Kansas.

Meteorite

X-Ray Nova Sources Growing in Number

X-ray novae are a new class of x-ray sources that must be added to the growing list of such objects. The first source, Cen X-2, was spotted in Centaurus in 1967. Last year a spectacular x-ray nova appeared in the constellation Monoceros and became the brightest x-ray source in the sky. In addition, during April 1975 an object near the Crab nebula, AO535 + 26, was observed to pulsate once every 104 seconds. The latter source faded in July, reappeared in August and faded again, and then reappeared in November 1975.

Two MIT scientists, Philip Morrison and Kenneth Brecher, have suggested that these new sources be divided into two groups. Sources like the brilliant one on Monoceros are “soft” x-ray objects that may generate radiation be ejected gases being excited by shock waves traveling through the nova. On the other hand, “hard” sources like AO535+26 may emit x-rays in the manner of neutron stars, by the excitation of matter falling onto a magnetized, rapidly rotating collapsed body.

(Astronomy Magazine, August 1976. History of Astronomy).