Origin of Tektites

IN a recent communication1, Dr. Kohman suggests that tektites are meteorites which originate in interstellar space and collide with the solar system. I should like to direct attention again to the various facts that must be explained by any acceptable postulated history of these objects. (1) Tektites have chemical compositions remarkably similar to those of the more acid sedimentary rocks. This is true for the major and minor constituents. (I have been privileged to see analyses as yet unpublished on these minor constituents.) Such a chemical composition is not produced by any other naturally occurring chemical processes that we know of, except perhaps in very rare and special circumstances. (2) Tektites obviously have been melted, and this means that a temperature of some 1,500° C. or more was supplied by some means. In fact some appear to have been reheated to the melting point by passage through gas or by a blast of gas over the object. No terrestrial source of heat is known which could produce such high temperatures. (3) They are distributed thinly over areas of hundreds and thousands of kilometres in linear dimensions. (4) They are reported to contain aluminium-26 and beryllium-10. This observation is due to Dr. Kohman and Dr. Ehmann.