Meteorites

Meteorites

Meteorites are solid rocks, remains of the Solar System formation which have fallen to the Earth.

They are solid rocks on which a fusion crust was formed when the meteor passes through the atmosphere. At that moment frictions can modify its aspect (especially for the iron meteorites) by creating what are called regmaglypts (“thumb-prints”) .

An estimation tells us that around 150000 tons of cosmical matter is falling on the Earth every year.

Meteorites that are found after a meteoric event has been witnessed are called a "fall," while those found by chance are called a "find".

Meteorites have a variable composition and can be classifed in 3 groups:

* Stony meteorites : they represents 70% or the meteorites falls and are divided in 2 classes:

- chondrites: essentially composed of silicated rocks and sometimes composed of carbonated rocks containing iron beeds called "chondres" (which do not exist on the Earth).

- achondrites: metal poor, they do not contain "chondres". Lunar and martian meteorites are in this class.

* Iron meteorites : containing iron and nickel, are divided in 3 groups:

- Octaedrites on which we can see Widmanstätten patterns.

- Hexaedrites with fine pattern of parallel lines called Neumann lines.

- Ataxites :They have no visible Widmanstätten pattern.

* Stony-iron meteorites : which represents only 3% of the falls, contain 2 sub-groups:

- Pallasites consists of cm-sized olivine crystals in peridot quality in an iron-nickel matrix

- Mesosiderites: composed of an approximately equal mixture of silicates and metal that is indicative of multiple and repeated impacts.

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