Boys in the Williamette meteorite, 1920.

In honour of the Perseid meteor shower that is peaking tonight, we thought we'd share a blast from the past. Gracing the exhibition space at the American Museum of Natural History since 1906, the largest meteorite discovered in the USA was found in Oregon in 1902, and weight 14.5 metric tonnes.

 These iron nickel meteorites are thought to be the remnants of asteroid cores after catastrophic collisions broke them apart. Some types of stony meteorites are thought to come from their mantles. It is the sixth largest known meteorite on Earth. The Perseids on the other hand are debris from the comet Swift Tuttle, next due to grace our skies in 2125.

Since there was no impact crater where it was found, researchers suppose it landed in Canada and was transported atop the ice age ice sheet to where it was discovered. It was venerated as Tomanowos by the indigenous Clackamas tribe, who after a legal compromise, conduct a ceremony around it in the museum once a year.

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