Posted on 10/14/2002 8:38:43 PM PDT by Sawdring
PARIS, Oct 13: A Russian meteorite that crashed two weeks ago in Siberia, but whose existence is being played down by Russian authorities, is said to be "one of the great events of the century" by French space specialist Antonella Barucci.
Miss Barucci, a meteorite specialist employed by the Paris Observatory said that the Russian metorite, which fell October 3 in a remote region of Siberia "could be the largest and most important meteorite to fall on earth since the last one that fell in 1908, also on Siberia."
The new Siberian meteorite has also the added attraction, moreover, that according to the few scientists who are privy with what happened, that in fact's it's the large fragment of a star, which means that the object that fell to earth is possibly even more of a rarity than has heretofore been thought.
Although Russian authorities are attempting to play down the importance of the event, eyewitnesses who saw the fragment fall out of the sky at Bodaibo in the region of Irkutsk near a gold mine, say that they saw a large rock fall out of the sky and then felt the earth tremble.
One of the Siberian gold-diggers, Alexander Doroshok, said that "suddenly the sky turned turquoise, there was a large flash followed by an explosion that produced a sharp whistling sound." A little while later, Doroshok and other gold diggers from Bodaibo say they came across a large crater in the middle of a forest where several trees had burned.
But Russian authorities are playing down the whole thing, that is, at least until they themselves can make their way to the region of Irkutsk where Russian scientists are not all that certain that the incident is such a major event after all. Kirilli Levy, a director of the Academy of Sciences at Irkutsk, says for his part that "the seismic vibrations produced by the impact were best comparable to those of a minor, and average, local earthquake."
The same Mr Levy adds, moreover, that he's unwilling to say anything more until he himself has had a chance to visit the site of the supposed crash.
Wow! In all of 22 months. Guess this can't be topped in the remaining 1,178 months.
uh, ok
"The new Siberian meteorite has also the added attraction, moreover, that according to the few scientists who are privy with what happened, that in fact's it's a large fragment of your butt, which means that the object that fell to earth is possibly even more of a rarity than has heretofore been smelled."
Stars are hydrogen and helium and just don't "fragment". This is total nonsense.
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who knows what kind of craft crashed this time,could be al gore clones!
When I returned to the common the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky--a couple of hundred people, perhaps. There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange imaginings passed through my mind. As I drew nearer I heard Stent's voice: "Keep back! Keep back!"A boy came running towards me.
"It's a-movin'," he said to me as he passed; "a-screwin' and a-screwin' out. I don't like it. I'm a-goin' 'ome, I am."
I went on to the crowd. There were really, I should think, two or three hundred people elbowing and jostling one another, the one or two ladies there being by no means the least active.
"He's fallen in the pit!" cried some one.
"Keep back!" said several.
The crowd swayed a little, and I elbowed my way through. Every one seemed greatly excited. I heard a peculiar humming sound from the pit.
"I say!" said Ogilvy; "help keep these idiots back. We don't know what's in the confounded thing, you know!"
I saw a young man, a shop assistant in Woking I believe he was, standing on the cylinder and trying to scramble out of the hole again. The crowd had pushed him in.
The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, and turned my head towards the Thing again. For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly black. I had the sunset in my eyes.
I think everyone expected to see a man emerge--possibly something a little unlike us terrestrial men, but in all essentials a man. I know I did. But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks--like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me--and then another.
A sudden chill came over me. There was a loud shriek from a woman behind. I half turned, keeping my eyes fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the edge of the pit. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. I heard inarticulate exclamations on all sides. There was a general movement backwards. I saw the shopman struggling still on the edge of the pit. I found myself alone, and saw the people on the other side of the pit running off, Stent among them. I looked again at the cylinder, and ungovernable terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring.
A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather.
Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air.
Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth--above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes--were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
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