Meteoritics is the study of the only tangible entities that reach us
from outer space. Except for the meteorites, scientists have to depend
entirely on studies of some form of _radiation_ for all their knowledge
of the wider cosmos lying outside of the atmosphere of the earth. And
none of the radiations reaching us from various sources afar can be held
in the hand for examination. Each type of radiant energy incident upon
our earth—whether that energy be light from the sun or from the more
distant stars or the galaxies, or the reflected light from the planets
and moons of our Solar System, or the less familiar forms of radiation,
such as radio waves and cosmic rays—must be measured and permanently
recorded by complicated instruments. Often the results given by even the
most sensitive and tractable of these scientific robots turn out to be
exceedingly difficult for man, their master, to interpret.
But the meteorites require no such temperamental instruments for their
measurement. They are themselves a permanent record. They can be
weighed, sectioned, and polished. They can be studied chemically,
microscopically, and radiometrically. In fact, they can be investigated
_directly_, just as they are themselves, in our hands, by any method
modern science may be clever enough to devise.
This is why, now with the world’s attention drawn to ambitious plans for
the exploration of the cosmos, meteors and meteorites are of increasing
interest and importance.
We have planned and written this book to be a sound and yet largely
nontechnical introduction to the science of meteoritics. Our daily
experiences in the Institute of Meteoritics have afforded us a fortunate
advantage in making such a presentation. For, in addition to our work in
the field, laboratory, and classrooms, we have frequently conducted
young people through the museum and workrooms of the Institute and so
have had the opportunity of learning their point of view at the same
time they were venturing into ours. We hope our book will instill in the
reader an abiding interest in the location and protection, the recovery
and preservation and especially in the study of those cosmic missiles of
iron, iron-stone, or stony composition that represent mankind’s only
ponderable links with the vast universe lying beyond the limits of the
earth’s atmosphere.
Although all photographs and special depictions not made by our staff
are individually credited, we wish to express our personal thanks for
the privilege of reprinting them here. All photographs that are without
a credit line have been made by members of our staff.
_Lincoln LaPaz_ _Jean LaPaz__University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
March 20, 1961_