M E T E O R I T E S

Finally, after waiting for a long time, a thin section of the NWA 869 that I've ordered to made was ready.

This section is an extremly thin slice of the meteorite (about 0,005 mm thin) glued to the piece of glass so the light can go through it. It can be put under the microscope and with a help of two polarized filters minerals can be identified.

I want to share with you what I saw under the microscope. Have a look.

This is a normal view without any filters:



Images taken using polarized filters:

A perfectly round chondrule:



Olivine chondrule:



Pyroksene chondrule:



And... I don't know what it is:



I hope you enjoyed!

Previously we have taken a closer look to iron meteorites, lets do the same with stone meteorites (so called chonfrules) now.



Fusion crust (created when the stone was entering into earth atmosphere)
on the unclassified meteorite from Morocco. You can see melted stone that
was flowing through its surface.



Incredible chondrules (bright, spheric structures) inside the NWA 869 meteorite.
Characteristic thing for the chondrites. You won't see them in rocks from
Earth.

I would like to introduce my meteorite blog. In a free time I'm going to post here some informations regarding meteorites and things related to this out of this planet topic. At this point you can visit my photo gallery with pictures of meteorites from my collection. Any comments are welcome!


Hunting in Morasko - possible outer space victim.

My passion for meteorites...
I'm interesting in meteorites over 1 year. I see my interest for meteorites in many dimensions:

hunting > collecting > selling > tooling > researching

Hunting for space rocks:
Almost everyone who is interested in meteorites want to get one - here "meteorite hunting" starts. You can hunt for meteorites at some areas where meteorites has been found in the past (so called straw fields) with a metal detector. But you can also hunt for meteorites in the Internet - this is much more easier. I love both. Hunting for a space rocks in a terrain is always a great adventure. Looking for them in a cyberspace gives a great fun as well and you can do it during a rainy day!

Collecting falling stars:
When you manage to get your first meteorite then automatically you become a Meteorite Collector! There is many interesting meteorites of course one can be interested in big "complete" meteorites with a Fusion Crust that is created when it is entering Earth atmosphere. Someone other may be interesting in meteorite that is cut into half so its interior is clearly visible (e.g. great chondrules). One can "fall in love" in an Iron Meteorites, other in stone meteorites (e.g. achondrites) or Moon, Mars meteorites. Be avare that collecting meteorites can be a very expensive - most valuable meteorite prices can be like 1 000 000 USD for 1 gram!

Selling a cosmic material:
If you will get few meteorites into your private collection then you may want to sell some to others to get money for next meteorites! Here you become a meteorite dealer and you are starting to discovering the Meteorite Market... Getting a new contacts is here the most important thing.

Alien rocks tooling:
Then it comes to many forms that meteorites are available on the market: complete meteorites, cutted to slices, etched in acid iron meteorites or rimmed into really thin slices (to view under the petrographic microscope). You start thinking about cutting, rimming and polishing meteorites by yourself... then it comes to etching iron meteorites and at the end the hardest thing - making thin sections of meteorites. Be careful here since cutting and especially etching in acid can be really dangerous! Be sure that you REALLY know what you are doing. Tooling skills will let you buy a big meteorite for a low price per gram and cut to get a form that you want - slice or end piece.

Cosmic Research = Meteorite Researche:
Because there is many types of meteorites it is good to be able to tell to what type some meteorite that you have belongs to. This is not only about whether it is a stony/iron/stony-iron meteorite because those types are divided into many sub-classes. There are also so called "unclassified meteorites" that you can get quite cheap so if you have enough knowledge to tell what type this meteorite is then this is great because it becomes more valuable! You can easly get benefits here from your knowledge and experience. Officialy classified meteorites have got official names like "Campo del Cielo", "NWA 869", "GIBEON". It is hard and requires some money and time but you can have your unidentified meteorite officialy classified and get an official name for it! In this way many people all over the world may want to have a piece of your meteorite in their collections. There may be something special in your meteorite that will make a big influence on the scence! Wouldn't it be great if you could discover such thing?!

There is also one more great thing in meteorite science: People are spending tons of money for space missions... that is ok but don't forget that we are a part of the Universe and cosmic garbage is falling right on our heads all the time! Lets grab it!

I hope that I briefly described my meteorite passion in many dimensions and that after reading this you will be more interested in meteorites than before.

I would like to invite you to my meteorite shop, unfortunatelly currently only the polish language version is available: www.meteoryty.sklepna5.pl.

Greets,
Tomasz Stawarz