Here ’s a bizarre milestone . On June 28 , 1911 , a meteorite fell over the outskirts of Alexandria , Egypt . The meteorite separate into several little rock candy , one of which may have reduced a dog to a burnt smear .
On that fateful morning a century ago , the Nakhla meteorite discover over the hamlet of Abu Hummus , and 40 of these fragment were recovered for research .
Although the 1.3 - billion - year - old rock is famous in astrogeological set for its Martian origins , the Nakhla rock also has the lurid ( and perhaps unearned ) repute as a dog - smusher . ExplainsThe Smithsonian :
W.F. Hume , parson of the Geological Survey of Egypt , began taking eyewitness statements , and two months later published his report , “ The First Meteorite Record in Egypt . ”
One of those statement , from a husbandman who claim to have seen a fragment fall on a dog , give rise to the pop myth that Nakhla , as the meteorite would be named , was “ the dog killing meteorite , ” an uncorroborated claim , but the striking account is irresistible : “ The fearsome column which appeared in the sky at Denshal was substantial . The terrific interference it breathe was an explosion which made it break through several fragments of volcanic materials . These rummy fragment , fall down to world , buried themselves into the grit to the deepness of about one metre . One of them precipitate on a dog … leaving it like ashes in a moment . ”
There ’s not a ton of scholarship devoted to whether or not a dog was doomed by the promised land , but if this incident really did come to pass , everythingscience fable cinema ’s taught us about cuspid and cosmic catastropheis wonderfully faulty .
to boot , the John Rock ’s igneous shaping andthe presence of amino acids on the rockhave led some scientists to conjecture that the meteorite offers potential evidence of life on Mars , but the constitutive molecules belike ended up on the Nakhla sample as a resolution of terrestrial contamination . In any face , hug your dog today and be happy they ’re not on the receiving end of inept space detritus .
Top range of a function viaThe Smithsonian . Bottom image viaThe University of Oklahoma .
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