Meteorites On most clear nights a bright streak can be seen moving rapidly across the sky. This is a meteor – a very small dust sized particle burning up in the atmosphere. A Meteorite is a much larger lump of rock that managed to survive passing through the Earth's atmosphere and reach the ground. Most meteorites are left-over bits from the formation of the solar system 4,500 million years ago. Meteorites are classified according to their composition and structure, as follows: Achondrites – stony. Believed to originate from the surface of the Moon, Mars or even the Asteroid Vesta. About 8% of falls. Chondrites: - among the oldest rocks in the Solar System. They get their name from the chondrules or large grains of nickel & iron. About 82% of falls. Pallasites – Nickel-iron matrix crystalline fragments of olivine and pyroxine. Thought to originate from the core / mantle boundary of small planets. Very rare only 1% of falls. Iron - Iron and Nickel with varying amounts of rare metallic elements such as Niobium and Iridium. About 5% of falls. Tektites - Tektites were created when massive impacts hurled molten surface rocks high into the atmosphere. These remelted on re-entry produced the characteristic shapes and evidence of ablative heating. We now have a collection of meteorites and tektites for you to see comprising: Iron Meteorite Weight - 27g Location - Sikhote-Alin Mountains (NE Vladivostok) Fall Date – 12^th Feb 1947 Iron Meteorite Weight - 546g Location – Lihu/Yaozhai towns, Nantan County, Guangxi, China (25 deg 6’ N, 107 deg 42’E). Fall Date – 1516 Typical composition Iron 92.35%, Nickel 6.96% classified as type IIICD. The Nantan fall was observed, "during summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds". Meteorites have been found over an area of 225 Kmsq. Total weight is estimated at 9,500kg. Stone Chondrite (H4/H5) Weight - 35g Location - Rissani, Morocco Fall Date - unknown Stone Chondrite (L4/L5) Weight - 15g each Location - Rissani, Morocco Fall Date - unknown Stone Chondrite (L4/L5) Weight - 20g Location - Jiddat al Harasis, Central Oman Fall Date - unknown Biggest fall in Oman made a hole 220m in diameter. Tektites Weight - 21g Location - Australasia / Indo-Chinese strewn field Fall Date - several million years ago While most large meteor impact happened millions of years ago, some like Barringer Crater in Arizona occurred only 50,000 years old. Even now a report is made almost ever year of a meteorite fall. Our samples were supplied by SpaceRocks The British and Irish Meteorite Society is for anyone who collector meteorites.