Comments on: Meteorite or not?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:03:07 +0000

I have a piece of what my uncle says was from a falling star. It was one of several pieces he had and gave it to me about 40 years ago. It is about 3 inches by 3 inches and 1 1/2 inches thick and greenish tinge in colour and cauliflower like surface. What is it?

By: tag heuer watch

tag heuer watch — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:29:36 +0000

The only true way to know if it is a meteorite is to watch it fall from the sky. If you don’t see it fall or where it lands there is no way to tell if it is a meteorite or not based on the simple fact that it’s just a rock that has properties just like rocks that this planet makes. That’s why the only good place to find meteorites in the poles where there’s snow. If you find one on top of the snow or a glacier then it is reasonable to assume that it is a meteorite.

By: New Idea

New Idea — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:24:07 +0000

Send it to the Smithsonian. They will identify it for you!

By: chelsea

chelsea — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:16:26 +0000

Please get glasses experts. This almost certainly is a nice juicy strawberry dipped in melted marshmallow, and slowly and almost perfectly roasted over a charcoal barbque, even has a strawberry seed, or perhaps a flax seed, or perhaps a sesame seed glued on. I am truly afraid for the fate of our world if any of you actual experts actually believe that the picture of this fruit actually is a picture of an actual meteorite. It looks kind of tasty, never tried one before. Do any of you actually know where I could get a meteorite scientifically identified in British Columbia, Canada? Actually actively waiting for a reply.

By: Weather Network

Weather Network — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:32:00 +0000

Weather Network

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting

By: Charles

Charles — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:29:16 +0000

Got one that sort of looks like that.Came from a terminal morraine on an east coast island. Tear-droped shape, popped bubble surface,small break on trailing edge shows it to have a5/8 basalt shell with a light interior. about 7×3.5. heavy, but not unduly so. photo on request. not no clinker. might be meteor splash

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 16 May 2006 05:53:46 +0000

Unfortunately, that has no chance whatsoever of being a meteorite. It is undoubtedly a chunk of lava or hematite. Most people dont realize tht, although meteorites do tend to burn up as they enter the atmosphere, this melting simply boils away the durface of the meteorite, almost never leaving any bubbles, though indentations (often called thumb-prints because they look as if they could have been made by a person’s pushing their thumb into a ball of wet clay) are not uncommon. However, their surface is typically smooth, unless broken. A common misconception is that the meteorites themselves melt. This is entirely untrue. Although the exterior surface is essentially flowing off, it is being removed so quickly that the interior of the meteorite will stay at roughly its initial temperature (that it was in space — negative a couple hundred degrees) until it lands and absorbs heat from its surroundings. Hence, many meteorites that have been recovered just after they have fallen are covered in a frost. Hence also the lack of bubbles. Just google ‘meteorite’ in the image section. You should come up with a good idea of what to look for.

By: David Adams

David Adams — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 07:54:20 +0000

That’s a horse apple!

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 01:45:30 +0000

Looks like volcanic to me.
Collected some pumice of Vulcano in the Eolian islands floating around in the sea and that stuff is off white, porous,light (floats) and pretty hard.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:58:52 +0000

Dan,

I don’t see any Chondrules.

I’m favoringthe vesicular basalt diagnosis.

steve

By: Dan Brown

Dan Brown — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:41:49 +0000

Does it have Chondrules?!?!?!? Does it have Chondrules?!?!?!? Does it have Chondrules?!?!?!?

By: Brick, a cretin

Brick, a cretin — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 01:37:02 +0000

Clearly, this is a variety of vitreous cheese, possibly Gouda, most likely expelled from the moon when it was hit by a meteor or comet untold eons ago. Astronomers believe cheese like this can tell us a lot about how the solar system was initally formed, and provide links to the very origins of our earth-moon system.

Eat some of the cheese. Very shortly, you will experience what some astronomers and lunar geologists call the “lunar wind”.

By: axxxr

axxxr — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:47:06 +0000

looks like something my local Bodyshop sells.

By: JARiley

JARiley — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:58:08 +0000

I’ve collected geology specimens and have had an interest in space all my life (40+ years). Having grown up in the mid-west too, I would say with little doubt that this is indeed a “clinker” – a leftover chunk of smelted material from a slagheap. These result from a number of processes: Iron smelting, blast furnaces, residue from blacksmiths, and quite a number of other industrial processes. If it mostly has a feel like rock, with the glassy glaze and the little pits all through it (empty from gas bubbles like pumice), it’s most assuredly one of these. They can be found especially near old industrial areas along the Mississippi, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland & Pittsburgh (and other areas where there were steel mills for a very long time), and also from areas where glassmaking was prevalent (like West VA). It’s a side effect of superheating various rock materials and extracting minerals from it, or the waste parts that have been partly fused in those processes. They vary quite a bit depending on what process they resulted from but are mostly like this.

Tektites, as I’ve seen mentioned a few times in all this are not really from space, yet are the result of extraterrestrial impacts – usually in sandy soils. Literally the heat and force of the impact will cause the silicon dioxide (glassy substances in most types of rocks, especially quartz) to literally become molten glass which often are elongated or droplike since they can “splatter” outward for many miles depending on the size of the strike and the amount of heat and resolidify in the air. Much is commercially available at rock shops and has come from finds in Indonesia, Australia & even Arizona. Most are from extremely old strikes (millions of years) and often do incorporate small amounts of the meteor as it disintegrated on impact. Most are from ancient strikes and are located when they erode from the soils. The most expensive are a greenish gem variety found in Poland & the Czech Republic, which is called moldavite (first found near Moldavia.

Someone else mentioned a similar phenomenon that occurs when lightning strikes sandy areas. These are called Fulgarites and many are extremely bizarre looking. The heat fuses the sand into glass again, but usually in wildly irregular shapes mimicking inverted trees often colored by trace metals. Here’s a great site with photos & more info: http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/fulgarites.htm

I do have a piece of real nickel-iron meteor from a secondary strike in AZ (not the Meteor Crater National Monument) that is fairly well known as well as tektites from numerous locations throughout the world. They really look nothing like this. Go see your local Natural History museum or keep your eyes peeled for gem & mineral shows. Someone almost always has a few of several different kinds for sale if you’d love that ultimate paperweight! And for some of you that might be a set of genuine dino-dung bookends (prehistoric coprolites) instead.

By: Timinindiana

Timinindiana — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:54:55 +0000

And please, no one correct my grammer or spelling. I have a wall full of diplomas and degrees but I sent off a rough draft because I have five kids all clamoring for my attention, my coffee isn;t ready yet, and I have to go to work in five minutes. Not even enough time to caress my rocks.

By: Timinindiana

Timinindiana — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:50:55 +0000

To quote my good friend the Reverend Jesse Jackson “KEEP HOPE ALIVE!” I have a whole bag of rust-dust covered examples of hemetite (sp?) ore which for years I believed were meteorites. They are very heavy and magnetic enough to convice me to keep them. An expert told me they were not meteorites, but offered no alternative suggestions. Ten years I lugged these around. I have grown quite fond of them and only recently identified them as hemetite. But I may be wrong. I picked them all up in those collections of worn stone that parking lots use as buffer zones. I figured that… oh bag it. I still have them. And yet a geologist friend of a friend still remembers enough to send me to this site (thanks). Keep that rock good buddy. Hold onto it for years. Someday when our sun dies in a big explosion all the stuff on earth will be sent hurling back into the dark cold expance, and then maybe, just maybe, you specimen will be wished upon by some freaky alien child as the stone lands in a flash and becomes a… dare I say it… a meteorite. Someplace…. Someday…. Keep it.
Unless of course you break it open and find the aforementioned peanuit inclusions, then throw it away so fast it burns from the friction anyway. Don’t hang on to anything if you are waiting for it to become a coprolite. Thanks for the forum. I think I will go and check on my big bag of rusting rocks.

By: Martin W.

Martin W. — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:51:33 +0000

It appears to be a chunk off the top of a lava flow or edge of some kind of igneous intrusion. The vesicular texture generally arises from hot lava/magma coming into contact with water or waterlogged sediments, the steam generated produces the holes. The holes can be filled with later deposited minerals (zeolites usually) and are then known as amygdales (at least here in the UK).
I am a geology graduate and have seen similar texture on fieldwork in Scotland.

By: Travis C.

Travis C. — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:52:18 +0000

Definitely not a meteorite, sorry. It certainly looks as if it was formed by the hardening of lava. Most meteorites look jagged and fragmented, and lack the smoothness of your rock.

The holes and bubbles are the dead give away though. They are formed by the collection of gas when the magma is forming. Meteorites don’t develop holes like that, instead they have small concave sections, similar to thumbprints.

By: Mike Rubber

Mike Rubber — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 15:40:40 +0000

This reminds me of Dan Brown’s Deception Point… like many comments here say, meteors are not very hard to detect after proper tests.

By: zoop

zoop — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 09:31:17 +0000

doesnt look like any meteorites that ive seen (work as a geologist in australia and have seen heaps). the shape is similar, though – the small ones are usually like a tear drop.

if u wanna find a real one go out to your nearest desert onto a salt lake, they stick out like dogs balls..