with metal crystallization that could only be made in space. In contrast with earth alloys, the microgravity environment and long cooling times in the interior of their parent asteroids allowed the meteoritic phases to grow into large, intermixed three-dimensional crystalline structures.
Iron-nickel meteorites make up about 6% of those striking Earth (most are stony chondrites) and they come from certain collisions of M-type asteroids that fragment their metal cores.
This is pallasite — popularized as kryptonite in Superman Returns — and first discovered in Magadan, Russia a couple months after my birth.
Most of the Seymchan Meterorite is at the Russian Academy of Sciences (which I recently visited and found captivating). I also voyaged through Eastern Russia near Magadan years ago.
This huge slice of a Seymchan meteorite shows the internal structure which appears as an intricate latticework — actually the crystalline pattern of the alloys that comprise the meteorite — known as the Widmanstätten pattern. This unique “fingerprint” serves as a diagnostic in the identification of iron meteorites as different meteorites feature distinct patterns.
This Pallasite-PMG comes from the Magadan District, Russia and was found in 1967. This meteorite now classified as a rare ungrouped Pallasite. The new pieces are a mixture of some pieces being iron only, some with a few silicates.
37.47 x 26.04 x .79 cm (14.75 x 10.25 x .3125 inches) and 3964.9 grams (8.74 pounds).
Leave a Reply