Meteorite #1) An excellent quality 34.0 gram unclassified NWA Chondrite Stony (high Iron Content) Meteorite with a largely complete dark fusion crust with some visible contraction lines and small Remaglypts. This choice specimen was discovered in the Sahara Desert and hails from an unwitnessed fall in North West Africa. (Ex. Simon Camm collection, Cornwall, UK). Chondrite Meteorites are extremely old, dating from the birth of our solar system some 4.5 Billion years years ago and consist of between 20% and 80% chondrules, which are tiny glassy, spherical to subspherical mineral droplets in a fine-grained matrix of the other minerals, olivine, pyroxene, feldspar together with varying degrees of iron-nickel metals. Approximate size: 36mm x 24mm x 27mm.
[Meteorites are fragments of much larger Asteroids originating in the “Asteroid Belt” between Jupiter and Mars that break off during impacts with other Asteroids. These fragments are then ultimately thrown into an orbit which eventually brings them into contact with the Earths gravitational pull. The fragments are then accelerated to in excess of 45,000 mph by the Earths gravity as they enter our atmosphere and heating the rocks surface to <1500 degrees Celsius, this in turn melts and reforms the silicates within the Meteorite forming the dark outer layer known as a “Fusion Crust”; this resculpting of the meteorites surface often leads to the “thumb-print” like impressions (Remaglypts) and the fine contraction cracks are caused by the immense heating and subsequent cooling by the Earths atmosphere during re-entry] Smaller meteorites often burn up in the atmosphere creating the meteor showers (shooting stars) that can often be seen in the night sky. Meteorites however, are the larger fragments that ultimately survive the torturous re-entry through the Earths atmosphere and then impact the Earths surface.