jim%rand-unix@sri-unix.UUCP (06/20/83)
Re: complaint about ancient meteor mentioned in V I didn't notice that they called the large event in our past a meteor rather than a meteorite, but I was impressed that they cited iridium as one of its main components. I believe it was only last year that some scientists (the name Luis Alvarez comes to mind, but I could be wrong) discovered a layer of iridium in several widely separated places that was deposited at the same time, coeval with one of the major extinctions (was it the end of the Carboniferous??). The iridium was orders of magnitude more than in previous years, and tapered off. The conclusion was that it was part of a meteorite that caused the extinctions. As I say, I was pleased that the writers had done their homework.