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The world y b foe aaing ita att.utiaa oo the race of the 0. s. aetroa.uts

to raaah th aoon, t a ew Collece student bae set her sights on ide ttfyin pi cea

f tbe aoon tbat fell to earth.

Mary O'Keefe, a a.-her of tbe Charter Claaa at Mew College, spent er receot

independent atudy period 1nveettaactug the heory that ... 11 la••Y objects foun4 to

certain part. of tbe eartb are fras-enta of t • .ooa.

Ceaerally apeaktna, tekttt .. are conaidere to e alaaa1 bodlea of roun4ad,

but indeftalte shape aqd uakDovn oriain, fouod ia Tooo-Cbtna, the Natherlaada tndies,

stral1a, Caechoslevakla, and alao in Texas, an4 G~orgia in our own country.

tea O'K efa goea btYoad this cenerality. Tektttea are yery hig arade

alaaa, aot juat alaaay. They are not of tadeflnite sha~e, but •ery apeciftc • ape.

eauaedb~y forces affecti their fli ht. either are they of unknown ortgta, saya

abe, but dari•ed froe •ole tc tart la fr the .ooa.

"Tektite• are aaall, sreeoiah or brown objecta vtth a curious aculpture,"

abe deacribea, "with a r&Ddo• &eo~aphleal dtatributlon aDd a aliKbtly atra~s•

cebaietry. Their at~cture eoetaina a aerie• of el ... ata too eontt&dictory to have

beea produced naturally on eartb.

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COtLECE

HA Y O'XEEFf - Page 2

On the basi of the "eontJ"adietory truet~,&H" lea 0 1K of ba •• eh

of ber case for the .oon-deri ed obj eta.

• ardl •• of their or18in,t 1• theory ia not • ethin ah orked out i

the ffiiW ve lui of her read111g period.

y'a fath r, & arvard-educated .. th~tician nd trooo er who is a

theoretician tor tbe National Aeron utleal Space Adm1niatrat1on, has b n vorkt

on the probl of t ktites for a n ber of year•• Fr his ¥r1t1ns•. troa those

ot otber aei ntbta, and fro 1.ur

"They're fro the

rapid dieeuasion ot the theory of

har conclusions about te tttea.

ay• authoritatively, and launch • into a

oon-der1ved t~ktit ••

Her axpl nation, brief d eo~atderably, holds t at n volca oe• ap.w d

forth a h which vaa depoa1ted in layers, th at of vhich was welded by

preaaure into • htsb sr de gla••·

She theorizes that 111ton of years ago hen et ors hit th on, the

p ct threw off parte of t e bott~ volca ic ash layer 1 great chuuk • of

which e cAp d v1tb enoueh eloctty to go tuto OTbtt bout t ear h.

"!vent~lly the rent body nt J' d the at aphere, h ate , lt d. and

dripped," cla1 Misa O'~eefe. "Th drip• forued the te titee which then fall off

1Dto a uarow are balov the ort inal orbit and nded up on rth."

Part of the rational for tbe tektite theory e~ trom the unusu 1 •ur­

f ce inde tat10Ds o e ch one •• vell aa the over 11 •nape.

ome are in teardrop •bape, • in the form of elted lee cream from a

con•• and the •urtaee rkiDMa vary fro looktns like • 11 1ndeutattona ouaed

out by a eharp tool to bavin co tiuuoua flow lineft.

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COLl.!CE

Mary O' eefa - Paa• 3

Tektit are fo d in ran ar aa r uod the earth in hat iae o• eefe

aaya are e lled "atr fielda."

" e cau au••• tbeae fields r creat d fro diatribution areas

found for pieeeaoof Aatro aut Jo o Clean'• rocket tru k and tor. The recovery

area for tbe piece• exte de froa Br ail to Sout Africa." ot d 1 a O' efe.

Certainly there re a reat uy re tektttea tbau find ld 1 dicate

b t the y reaearc er • y t er ia a r fer thia.

uy te titea ha bhit the artb. I th f t plac

their color, aiae and chaiatry ke t;:h 1Dconapicuoua, ' abe •"Y quickly. •• ny

of t fi da have b aade vhere there • b eo a railroa bu 1t or a w1 inR

o ratio •

ow di iaa O'Keefe r ally tet 1ntereated tn t titeaT Wbila her father

baa e a at for a n er of ye r it waa not un 11 ehe

aa at ew Coll ge th t her lntareat bee piqu •

"I aa att lat by tbe le tera y father vrote bout the work he vaa

doing with te tltaa," aai iaa o• af • "Alao, 1 p aaled b cau e 1 c uldn't

er taDd at he w a talkin abo c.•

returaed to her h in Ch c ••• ril an f r e era!

veeka rked ateadily, r .. dtna on tbe aubj t. en ahe wrote bar ovn leu thy re-

tearc ap , a d v or 1 rep rta on it to t • atude t b y a d to cert n era

of e faculty.

Did the p oj ct help her i her atudieaf

N!W COLLEGE

, ry O'Keefe - Page 4

"Very much, according to the reaearcber. ul learned to undor tand what

the moon is like. It also was helpful to me in king geology, flu4d dynamics,

and other theories of orbit, 1 pact, and mass, interesting, and it tied in with

many of y studies in the first year."

Miss O'Keefe was well prepar d for the co plax task which abe undertook.

A top student at the Ston Ridge School in Bethesda, Md., which is run by the School

of the Sacred Heartahe wee accustomed to learned talk in her family. Not only

is her father a theor•ticlan who brings home some of his interesting ork to share

with his family, but aha also hae a brother who raduated from the University of

Chteago a year ago, one at th Catholic University, and a sister at the University

of Toronto. Fiv other younaer brothers and sisters aake up her family.

Although on of her ajor int rests is in the area of acience, ehe ad-

mite to a current favoritiaa for literature. Happily WTapped up in all of her ac-

tivitiea, she has a ~•rm enthusias for the type of project she haa just completed.

What ia the significance of tektites?

"They can help ua to underatand-~a.ething abaut the earth and provide us

a clue to the formation of the oon," sa's Miss C'Keefe. ~ are constantly put-

ting together new information fr0111 our probes into pace that will tell us 110re

about our entir universe.nThey even help us to interpret the Ranger photographs of the moon."

Por Mary O'Keefe, it is significant that it ta also her first full-fledged

college research paper and ahe ia proud of the retulta.

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