The Weston meteorite is an H4

ordinary Ordinary or The Ordinary often refer to: Music * ''Ordinary'' (EP) (2015), by South Korean group Beast * ''Ordinary'' (Every Little Thing album) (2011) * "Ordinary" (Two Door Cinema Club song) (2016) * "Ordinary" (Wayne Brady song) (2008) * ...

chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primi ...

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

which fell to earth above the town of

Weston, Connecticut Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 census with the highest median household income in Connecticut. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the t ...

on the morning of December 14, 1807.

History

The Weston

fell to earth above the town of

at approximately 6:30 in the morning on December 14, 1807. The meteor fall was widely witnessed and reported in newspaper accounts at the time. Eyewitnesses reported three loud explosions, and stone fragments fell in at least six locations.

Debris field & Naming

Currently none of the area where the

strewn field The term strewn field indicates the area where meteorites from a single fall are dispersed. It is also often used for the area containing tektites produced by large meteorite impact.''Tektites in the geological record: showers of glass from the sky ...

(the debris field where the bulk of the fragments fell) was located on is in the town of Weston, but in primarily located in neighboring Easton. The town of Easton was within and part of the town of Weston in 1807, hence the name ''Weston meteorite''. The majority of the debris field is located in the eastern part of the present day town of Easton - in and around the Easton Reservoir. The remaining part of the debris field extended into the western part of neighboring Trumbull. Several fragments of this meteorite were collected in the Tashua section of Trumbull, in and around what is now Sturbridge Lane an
Tashua Knolls

Historical & Scientific Significance

Fragments from the fall were collected, documented, and chemically analyzed by

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

professors

Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at Yale College, the first person to use the process of fractional distillat ...

and

James Luce Kingsley James Luce Kingsley (August 28, 1778 – August 31, 1852) was an American classical and biblical scholar. Biography Born in Windham, Connecticut, Kingsley was educated at Williams and Yale, where he was graduated in 1799. He afterward taught f ...

. The Weston meteorite is the first meteorite to fall in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

which was documented in such a manner, marking the beginning of meteorite science in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Fragments of the meteorite remain within the Yale meteorite collection, which is the oldest such collection in the United States. The meteorite was also written on at the time by

Nathaniel Bowditch Nathaniel Bowditch (March 26, 1773 – March 16, 1838) was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book '' The New American Practical Navi ...

, calculating size and trajectory of the meteor.

References

{{Meteorites by name Meteorite falls Meteorites found in the United States Geology of Connecticut

History

Debris field & Naming

Historical & Scientific Significance

See also

References