I found a Meteorite

[skybadger]

Being an amateur geologist a long time ago I suggest those pieces are volcanic in origin, contains red garnet crystals and don't have an obvious crust.

But I still hope for your sake that they are..!

M

[MoonNut]

Ah, that was my first thought, but there are no volcanoes here, the nearest tectonic plate join is on the other side of the Persian Gulf, the nearest volcanoes I know of are on the western side of Saudi Arabia. But you have got me thinking and you are probably correct, one of them shows green crystals which I believe to be Olivine.

[John]

There are no volcanos in the UK, now ...... but there were a long time ago.

Achondrite meteorites are igneous in origin it's just that these processes that formed them occured in or on worlds other than the Earth

[LukeSkywatcher]

As the other Paul said, so too this Paul doesnt know enough to tell if something is a meteorite or meteor wrong. 

[John]

38 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

As the other Paul said, so too this Paul doesnt know enough to tell if something is a meteorite or meteor wrong. 

This article from the Meteorite Times online magazine is worth a read:

http://www.meteorite-times.com/bobs-findings/meteor-wrongs/

[LukeSkywatcher]

22 hours ago, John said:

A number meteorite types are non-magnetic.

Proper analysis can determine the likely source of the meteorite, formation age, type, time in space, time on Earth and many other things. Without this info we have to assume terrestrial origin I think because the total amount of verified meteoric material is quite a bit less than the total amount of gold or platinum in the world today.

Many of the rocks that come from the deset regions of NW Africa and elsewhere in the world turn out not be be meteoric despite being collected by experienced collectors.

 

 

 

 

I have a couple of NWA's. A whole specimen and a slice. Ive looked online and all the samples i have seen look like the ones i have. Under my microscope i can see "microscopic" spheres of metal mixed in with the rock. I can only assume they are real. When buying online, unless you are an expert it really boils down to trust. Ive no reason to doubt the companies involved in the selling of the meteorites i own, so i am happy to believe that ALL of my meteorites are real.

They all check out online with what other companies are selling as the same meteorites. They all (even the irons) display the characteristics written about and documented online. The only 2 i own which i have not checked out online are my Moon and Mars crumbs (as i call them). 

Why have i checked my collection out online?. Not that i dont trust the companies (no need to name them). I just wanted to find out more about exactly what i have. Different types,how they were formed etc.

I must admit that collecting meteorites is a bit of an addiction. I'm always checking the meteorite section on FLO to see if they have new ones. I was sure i had a Wolfe Creek meteorite from Western Australia, but its not in my collection. Then again, i always buy from FLO and they dont sell them at the moment, so i must be mistaken.

[LukeSkywatcher]

23 hours ago, MoonNut said:

There looks like there is a lot of interest regarding Meteorites on SGL, maybe we should start a new topic for them?

There are plenty of people who collect them. I doubt a whole section here on SGL is needed though. What would it be like...........

Basically people telling others what they bought and posting images of what they bought.

That can be done in a single thread. Ive started a couple myself and this in itself got others interested. 

[John]

14 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I have a couple of NWA's. A whole specimen and a slice. Ive looked online and all the samples i have seen look like the ones i have. Under my microscope i can see "microscopic" spheres of metal mixed in with the rock. I can only assume they are real. When buying online, unless you are an expert it really boils down to trust. Ive no reason to doubt the companies involved in the selling of the meteorites i own, so i am happy to believe that ALL of my meteorites are real.

They all check out online with what other companies are selling as the same meteorites. They all (even the irons) display the characteristics written about and documented online. The only 2 i own which i have not checked out online are my Moon and Mars crumbs (as i call them). 

Why have i checked my collection out online?. Not that i dont trust the companies (no need to name them). I just wanted to find out more about exactly what i have. Different types,how they were formed etc.

I must admit that collecting meteorites is a bit of an addiction. I'm always checking the meteorite section on FLO to see if they have new ones. I was sure i had a Wolfe Creek meteorite from Western Australia, but its not in my collection. Then again, i always buy from FLO and they dont sell them at the moment, so i must be mistaken.

If you got them from a reliable source then I'm sure they are the genuine thing. I was caught out once during my collecting days with a piece of martian material from an accredited dealer who turned out not to have as many scruples as others. He was actually "outed" by other members of IMCA who quickly realised that one "rotten apple" was going to spoil the whole meteorite market.

I certainly became somewhat addicted and built up several collections over a period of around 10 years. In the end I decided that I wanted to put the funds into astro gear so I sold up, happily the collections were kept together, which I was pleased about

I occasionally feel the urge to build up a small selection of samples again - but I try and nip that in the bud ASAP !

 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm more than likely done collecting. Never say never though. TBH, i have 2 collections because i have 2 of everything i own (each is different). I'm happy to have amongst my collection a couple of nice chunks of the Barringer meteorite (Meteorite Crater,Arizona) and a couple of the Chelyabinsk (Russia).

I think i'll be happy with a Wolfe Creek meteorite, only because i love the "Wolfe Creek" movies, and the crater is shown in the movies. 

[Alien 13]

I wonder about what equipment would be needed to set up a home "lab" capable of a reasonable degree of accuracy in determining a samples credibility, I have a microscope and could knock up an emission/mass spectrometer of some sort.

Alan

[JOC]

3 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I wonder about what equipment would be needed to set up a home "lab" capable of a reasonable degree of accuracy in determining a samples credibility

Well before you set up to do any analysis you would need to know if every meteorite was of uniform composition and if so whether there was a reference source of compositional information.  A reasonable 'fingerprint' could probably be obtained for the metallic composition of a sample, but the means of doing so could be complicated.  Traditionally rock samples are dissolved in aqua-regia or microwave pressure digested with hydrofluoric acid - both processes which require  specialised and laboratory safe facilities to handle and then analysied by atomic absorption spectroscopy.  In these modern times XRF of the surface might provide a finger print of the metallic composition, but unless there is a reference library against which results could be compared there would be no point in taking the readings.

[Stub Mandrel]

 

8 hours ago, JOC said:

Well before you set up to do any analysis you would need to know if every meteorite was of uniform composition and if so whether there was a reference source of compositional information.  A reasonable 'fingerprint' could probably be obtained for the metallic composition of a sample, but the means of doing so could be complicated.  Traditionally rock samples are dissolved in aqua-regia or microwave pressure digested with hydrofluoric acid - both processes which require  specialised and laboratory safe facilities to handle and then analysied by atomic absorption spectroscopy.  In these modern times XRF of the surface might provide a finger print of the metallic composition, but unless there is a reference library against which results could be compared there would be no point in taking the readings.

Understood, but there are also research papers based on hoovering up dust from roofs and keeping the magnetic bits to estimate the rate of meteor dust fall.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23231042-400-cosmic-dust-grains-found-on-city-rooftops-for-the-first-time/

There's also a letter pointing out to NS that the web is plastered with 'instructables' telling people how to do this from far earlier than 2016 - science catching up with hobbyists.

Apparently Lucien Rudaux was one of the first people to collect micrometeorites from dust and photograph them. He died in 1947!

Obviously things like roads or being close to an iron smelter will give you some false positives!

 

This is worth alook:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5876668/the-first-science-artist-to-draw-accurate-pictures-of-mars-and-the-moon