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Halley's Comet drops meteorite in northeast Texas
On this day in 1910, a 500-pound meteorite fell to earth outside the
northeast Texas community of Charleston during the passage of Halley's
Comet. Delta County's most publicized event of the decade was not without
precedent, however, as more than 230 meteorites have been catalogued in
Texas. The earliest written record dates from 1772, when Athanase de
Mézières learned of the Texas Iron from Tawakoni Indians near the Brazos
River. Considered the largest preserved find from Texas, this 1,635-pound
meteorite was venerated by several Indian cultures for its supposed
healing powers and is currently housed at the Peabody Museum of Natural
History at Yale University. Other finds in Texas include the 500-foot-
diameter Meteor Crater at Odessa, the third largest crater in the United
States, and the Peña Blanca Spring meteorite, which plunged into a
swimming pool on the Gage Ranch in Brewster County on August 2, 1946.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- METEORITES
- CHARLESTON, TX
- DELTA COUNTY
- METEOR CRATER AT ODESSA
- TEXAS IRON
- TEKTITES
- ASTRONOMY AND ASTRONOMERS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Indians take captives at Fort Parker (1836)
- Irish trader takes citizenship oath (1829)
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