Journalist Yaroslav Razumov about the only kazakhstani book on meteoroids
A few years ago Ildar Khalitov from Almaty began to think about what hobbies are popular in the world today, and this eventually led to an interesting precedent in Kazakhstan, both in the literary and educational spheres.
Collecting meteorites became Ildar’s hobby. And, as is often the case in life, another event literally “popped up” at once: he saw an offer from another city on the Internet – a meteorite for 15 million tenge. Ildar did not buy it, but, talking to the owner, he learned a lot of new things and became interested in collecting meteorites.
I bought my first meteor ten days later. It weighs 620 grams, the price was one dollar per gram. The name of the meteorite is “Berezovka”, after a village in the Pavlodar region – meteorites are named for the nearest locality or other geographical landmark they were discovered, – says Ildar.
Over a few years, the collector acquired fragments of nine Kazakhstani meteorites, the largest weighing 600 grams. And he built a large database of Kazakhstani and “foreign” meteorites, and on other related topics. As a result, he wrote the book “Kazakhstan Meteorites”.
This is one of the first, if not the only, Kazakhstani popular science book in natural science in thirty years. Moreover, it is written on domestic material and by Kazakhstani author. Society and state structures should pay attention to the book for many reasons. One being our dependence on other countries in shaping the worldview of young people and constant complaints about it. Or discussions of educational strategies – we somehow constantly lose sight of the fact that they are built not only on school and university training programs. We also need a variety of “infrastructure” in the form of various tools that educate young (and not only!) citizens in various sciences, stimulating interest in studying them further – popular science books, numerous periodicals, television content, all kinds of school lectures.
There were a lot of bad things in the Soviet education system, but here it can be taken as an example. In Kazakhstan today all this as a system is absent. There is something for “lyricists”, in the field of humanities, and often with considerable claims to quality, but for “physicists” – so far only “Meteorites” by Ildar Khalitov. He at his own expense does what the state should do. And this project is not commercial for Ildar, but rather karmic: the book is sold in stores and online platforms below the cost.
The book turned out to be a real popular science encyclopedia, it has four sections – about meteorites, comets, meteorite craters, and asteroids. But more about meteorites with a lot of related information: these are stories about people, in one way or another related to the topic – about the finders, dealers, scientists. There is also an explanation of scientific terms and, most importantly, for the educational effect of such books – an explanation of why meteorites are important for basic science. Ildar puts it this way:
Meteorites are important for science because they are actually a “time machine”: by studying them, it is possible to reconstruct a timeline of the solar system. Water and amino acids have been found in meteorites. This all provides tremendous and interesting material for studying the origin of life on Earth. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars for space missions to bring a piece of rock from other planets. Not a single piece has yet been brought from Mars but about 300 Martian meteorites have already been found on Earth. More than five hundred more are of lunar origin.
Ildar’s book has a historical angle as well: he says that in ancient times iron meteorites were used for iron tools and weapons, for example, Pharaoh Tutankhamun had such a dagger. An ancient chisel made of meteorite iron was recently found near Orenburg. The topic of collisions of the Earth with huge asteroids or comets is also touched upon in “Kazakhstan Meteorites”. A separate chapter is devoted to the meteorite craters of Kazakhstan, especially Zhamanshyn, famous in the scientific world, which is located in the Irgiz district of the Aktobe region.
Everyone knows that it exists, they talk about it in schools during geography lessons, but hardly many people know about its uniqueness. Ildar says that Zhamanshyn impactites – rocks formed when large meteoroids collided with the Earth’s surface – are represented in the museums of many reputable scientific centers in different countries. By the way, Ildar, who approaches his celestial hobby in a very systematic way, has established connections with a number of such centers. Now he communicates with fifteen museums in different countries of the world, some of them have collections of Kazakh meteorites discovered at the end of the 19th century. What we now see is that meteorites from other countries are exhibited in Kazakh museums, while ours are presented in foreign ones.
Around 70 thousand meteorites have been discovered in the world today. In Kazakhstan, since 1840, when the first one, “Karakol”, was found, there have been only 25 in total. Not thousands, pieces. The reason for this small number is our climate. The meteorite is exposed to precipitation, which gradually erodes it. In Kazakhstan, as you know, steppes are hot and dry in summer, but in winter and autumn there is snow and rain. And it is always humid in the mountains. Most meteorites, 60%, were discovered in Antarctica, where, despite snow, the air is very dry; in such places they are preserved for hundreds thousands of years.
Map of Kazakhstan with meteorites on it
You can dedicate your life to searching for meteorites and still not find them. In recent years, though, these celestial bodies have been found more frequently. This is likely the result of the increased knowledge about meteorites, including the commercial side of the topic, thanks to the Internet: meteorites can sell well today. In Soviet times there was no big bonus for this, about a hundred rubles, and the meteorite itself had to be surrendered to the state. There are no such requirements now. And over the years of independence, about ten meteorites have already been discovered, and two more are now being registered. One of them is very large – 168 kilograms. The easiest place to look for meteorites in Kazakhstan is where they have already been found – there may still be pieces of celestial bodies that broke off on impact.
But it is not enough to find – you also need to be able to distinguish meteorites from ordinary earthly rocks. In his book Ildar also outlined how to identify a meteorite. The most important feature is that flying at cosmic speed through the atmosphere leaves specific, as if scratched, stripes on the body of the meteorite. They are clearly visible on that meteorite on the cover of Kazakhstan Meteorites.
Will new Kazakh popular science books appear, following Ildar’s precedent, written in an interesting and not “basic” way, with high-quality content? Or will this example remain a bright but lonely celestial body, sparkling against a gray background?
Ildar Khalitov graduated from the University of Washington Business School with a bachelor’s degree in 1996. Worked and headed marketing departments in four international companies for 17 years. He has been running his own e-commerce business for the last 10 years. He is passionate about meteorits, birdwatching and writing. Lives in Almaty.
Yaroslav Razumov is a freelance journalist, economics expert, columnist, oil analyst.
The Alma Review 