Rocks from Space: Meteorites and Meteorite Hunters

Astronomy abounds with amateurs, and the easiest entr'e to the hobby is meteor watching. Anyone can see a few shooting stars on any night. For nighthawks and insomniacs, then, Norton offers this quaint miscellany crammed with facts and stories about extraterrestrial rocks, along with 200 photos. "Falls," as Norton calls the pieces that reach the ground, exert great scientific interest, so he describes past expeditions to collect them and examine the ancient craters they gouged out. Meteoriticist H. H. Nininger was one such explorer, and his life, which culminated in running a commercial meteor museum, illustrates the obsessive enthusiasm the hobby can induce. Although a field book might be more authoritative, Norton's tome will help slake the curiosity and worries that surround cosmic collisions, especially so soon after a comet hit Jupiter last month.