* Astronomy

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Imilac meteorite

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RE: Meteorites

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Do You Think You May Have Found a Meteorite?
Meteorites are pieces of asteroids and other bodies like the moon and Mars that travel through space and fall to the earth. They are rocks that are similar in many ways to Earth rocks, but it is exciting to find a piece of another planet here on Earth. Meteorites fall to Earth all the time and are distributed over the entire planet, so you could even find one in your own backyard!

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Properties of meteorites that are useful in identification

Meteorites are:

HEAVY: Most meteorites contain a significant amount of Fe-Ni metal, and are thus heavier (high-density) than rocks typically found at the surface of the Earth. There are exceptions to this rule. Some meteorites contain no metal at all, and are about as heavy as the dark volcanic rocks found in Hawaii and the Columbia Gorge.

MAGNETIC: Most meteorites contain a significant amount of Fe-Ni metal, and are attracted to a magnet. Again, there are a few exceptions of stony meteorites that contain no metal and are not attracted to a magnet.

IRREGULAR IN SHAPE: Meteorites aren't round. If a meteorite has entered the Earth's atmosphere without rotating, it can develop a conical shape similar to the re-entry capsules used in the Apollo space missions, although this is not typical. Most meteorites are irregularly shaped, as shown by the five views of CML 0023 (an unclassified North African meteorite) below. The second image from the right shows the start of what could be considered an aerodynamic shape.

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Have you found a meteorite?

We were all beginners once, and at Aerolite Meteorites they are eager and willing to advise you on how to proceed if you do find a meteorite. They also buy meteorites, and they also assist with identification, classification, and valuation. With many years of experience in the meteorite business, they can help you place your meteorite with a respected museum or academic institution, buy it, or help you sell it, depending on your preference.

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Blobrana · L

The black, pitted rock at the corner of Dorothy Lemke's property draws many curious passers-by.
Recently, a schoolteacher stopped to visit with her about it.
The visitor was not so surprised to learn it was a meteorite unearthed in a Versailles-area prairie turned terraced farmland more than 50 years ago.

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The black, pitted rock at the corner of Dorothy Lemke's property on Cedarbrooke Drive draws many curious passers-by.
Recently, a school teacher stopped to visit with her about it.

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Meteorite collectors, scientists, and admirers of sculptural artefacts from outer space bid today for Historic Meteorites and Related Americana in the first sale exclusively dedicated to meteorites to be held by a major auction house. Auctioneers Bonhams opened its New York City salesroom today (Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007) for a 53-lot sale which featured important examples of intergalactic collectibles. The sale brought $750,000, with more than half the lots selling above their high estimates and a strong sell-through rate (at 93%) overall.
Meteorite expert Darryl Pitt sees the international interest in the sale as supportive of his assertion that the market is robust and rapidly growing, the most desirable objects seeing interest from private collectors and institutions alike. Claudia Florian, Natural History Specialist and organizer of the Bonhams sale, stated that she was delighted with the buoyant results -- which indicate the overall strength of the market.

"The results were stronger than anticipated with a near-perfect result. We hope to conclude sales on the handful of unsold lots in the next several days."

Top lot sold today was a specimen described as the epitome of an iron meteorite. It came to Earth during the largest meteorite shower in human history and was retrieved from Siberia, Russia. This Sikhote-Alin brought $122,750 (estimate $55/70,000).
An interesting lot attracting competitive bids from privates and institutional curators is the only known mailbox to have been impacted by a meteorite. A grey-painted steel mailbox from Claxton, Georgia, near Atlanta, was struck in December of 1984. The dented mailbox sold for $82,750 on Sunday. A 5.5-gram slice of the meteorite that caused the damage to the mailbox sold for $7,768. A 23-gram slice of a meteorite which hit a car in Peekskill, NY was offered with pieces of the car, it sold for $1,673.
A slice of a meteorite composed of gemstones sold for $82,750, this example of a pallasite, dubbed the Glorieta Mountain meteorite -- found in New Mexico -- displays a wonderful array of olivine crystals within its nickel-iron matrix. A slice of a meteorite formerly within a London museum sold for $77,000, the shape of the specimen is a baseball home plate, the complete mass displaying olive and peridot clusters.
Aesthetic meteorites are extremely rare. Sculpture collectors have expressed interest in these specimens given their eye-pleasing forms. One of these, a Gibeon from Namibia, sold for $77,000. Another example, described as tabletop sculpture, sold for more than four times its estimate, bringing $26,888.
The path to Earth is not without its perils, meteorites often disintegrate long before impact. Some examples land with thumb prints or regmaglypts and an example with a deep scoop, referred to as an extraterrestrial candy bowl (which weighs 6

ounds), doubled its estimate to bring $38,838.
Bidders spanned the planet, with those in the auction room competing with bidders on the telephones from Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Australia, as well as many parts of the US.

Source Bonhams

Blobrana · L

Some of the world's most famous meteorites have gone under the hammer at a New York auction house in what is said to be the first sale of its kind.
The pieces were drawn from collections across the world and many examples are richly coloured and intricately patterned, some bearing gemstones.
A piece priced at $1.1m (£0.53m) did not sell but an iron meteorite from Siberia fetched $123,000 (£60,000).
And a US mailbox hit by a meteorite in 1984 sold for $83,000 (£40,000).

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People collect all different things -- baseball cards, art and even cars. But how about collecting something that's really from out of this world?
We're talking about items that originate in outer space and make their way here to Earth -- meteorites. While most end up in the ocean, others end up on Earth, on land, and they're becoming collectors items.

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The panoramic cameras the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover have captured "shooting stars," or meteors, in the Martian night sky on Sol 643. "Meteoroids" are small pieces of comets and asteroids that travel through space and eventually run into a planet. On Earth, we can sometimes see meteoroids become brilliant, long "meteors" streaking across the night sky as they burn up from the friction in our atmosphere. Some of these meteors survive their fiery flight and land on the surface (or in the ocean) where, if found, they are called "meteorites." The same thing happens in the Martian atmosphere, and Spirit even accidentally discovered a meteor while attempting to obtain images of Earth in the pre-dawn sky back in March, 2004.

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Texas A&M/SSI

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Blobrana · L

Two years ago, Mani teamed with a professional meteorite hunter named Steve Arnold to systematically comb eight square miles near Greensburg, Kan., with high-tech sounding equipment sensitive enough to find a cell phone-sized piece of metal at a depth of 10 feet.
The painstaking search unearthed 33 meteorites, including a 1,410 pound hunk of rusty-looking rock that is expected to fetch $700,000 Oct. 28 at a prestigious New York City auction house.
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