Meteorites

Properties & Origin

Thousands of meteorites have been
found and some have even been
seen to fall to the earth by eye
witnesses. This enormous collection
of meteorites has allowed to learn a
great deal about the formation of our
solar. We have found that meteorites
can be broken into several distinct
categories.
 A few definitions
• Meteoroid – A small fragment of a comet
or asteroid that orbits the Sun.
• Meteor – a small fragment burning up in
our atmosphere.
• Meteorite – A small fragment of a meteor
that survived until it reached the ground.
 Iron Meteorites
• These are very dense
and made almost
entirely of iron
• They show a pattern of
crystallization that
indicates a VERY
SLOW cooling rate
• These are called
Widmanstatten pattern
and they are identified
by the very large size
of the iron crystals
 Stony-Iron Meteorites
• These are rare and
contain both metal and
stone.
• They probably formed
in a differentiated
planetesimal that was
mostly or completely
shattered.
 Chondrites
• These are composed of
stone and can vary quite
a bit.
• They often contain
“chondrules”, which are
small bits of rounded
glass that indicates a very
rapid cooling period.
• This also means that the
meteor was not reheated
after formation
 Chodrites
• Some chondrites do show mild reheating while
others clearly were never reheated.
• We can tell that some have never been reheated
because they contains “volatiles”.
• Volatiles are gases that would escape very
easily if the meteor had been reheated.
• These chondrites might have originated before
the formation of the planets.
 Carbonaceous Chondrites
• These are regular chondrites
but they contain significant
amounts of carbon.
• This indicates that they have
NOT been reheated because
the carbon would have
escaped.
• These also seem to be the
original planetesimals from
the formation of our solar
system and may give us the
best clues regarding how our
solar system formed.
 Achondrites
• These are also stony but
unlike most chondrites,
they have been severely
reheated.
• These meteors resemble
rocks that form on the
planets from lava flows.
• It is very likely that these
are pieces of the planets
that have ejected during
massive impacts.
 SNC’s
• These meteorites formed
their own group, different
from all other meteors.
• In the 1980’s we found tiny
air bubbles in these
meteorites and when we
examine the composition
and isotopes they matched
perfectly with the
atmosphere of Mars!!
• These are the only rocks
that we have from any other
planet!
 The Fall
• The speed of meteoroids when they enter
the atmosphere is around 10 – 30 miles/sec.
• At this speed, meteors melt their surfaces
due to friction with the air creating what is
called a “fusion crust”.
• However, at their high speed, they only
spend a few seconds in the atmosphere
before they hit the ground.
• This means that the inside of the meteorite is
undisturbed.
Fusion crust
 Meteor Showers
• There about one dozen meteor showers
that occur on regular dates throughout the
year.
• These showers are caused by debris left
behind by a comet that passes our close
to the orbit of our planet.
• Since the showers are caused by our
planet running into the debris, the meteors
seem to radiate from a point called the
“radiant”.
 Meteor Showers
• The most intense showers have been the
Leonids
• About every 33 years the comet that
created the debris trail passes our orbit
again.
• In the years following we see spectacular
showers with rates of up to 10,000
meteors per hour or more.