Each Meteorite Kit contains twenty four specimens housed in their own transparent, foam-lined, labeled containers that include meteorites, tektites, and impactites from significant falls from around the world. Set in a handsome case, the Meteorite Kit is suitable for display in the classroom or in your own home. Along with each Meteorite Kit is a certificate of authenticity signed by one of the world's foremost meteoriticists, Dr. Mike Reynolds.

These meteorites and impactites are prepared with the Mason Process (tektites require no such special preparation) to museum conservation standards for long-term display collections. Your satisfaction is backed by Meade Instruments and comes with a money-back guarantee.

Below are descriptions with sample photos taken from the Meteorite Kit. Please note that meteorites, tektites, and impactites are of natural origin and each specimen will vary in shape, size, texture, and color.

Australite
Tektite; Australian
Australasian Strewn Field

A large object, either an asteroid or a comet blasts the surface of the Earth with such force that it blows molten material of Earth origin up through the atmosphere then rains some of this material back to the surface. This is what meteoriticists think produced the curious shapes in these dry lumps of glass forming a ring sometimes thousands of miles from known large impact craters. These are known as tektites.

Difficult to find, these particular tektites called Australites are found in Australia as well as Tasmania and are nearly three-quarters of a million years old. As with all tektites, Australites are very dry glasses composed mostly of silicates.

The aboriginals of Australia have collected these strange "glasses" for thousands of years believing them to possess special magical powers. They were also used to make weapons and sharp tools.

As asteroids crashed into each other breaking them apart, chunks of their partially melted internal layers eventually found their way to Earth.

Approximately 823 kilograms of this beautiful Pallasite have been recovered since 1810. Scientific tests have indicated that the final processes of heating and cooling which formed the olivine crystals within Brahin's parent body happened near the time of the formation of the solar system, just over four billion years ago. Slices of this stony-iron meteorite show a metal matrix of iron and nickel with olivine crystals embedded within the matrix. Olivine is also known in the gem world as Peridot.

As noted, Pallasites contain primarily a matrix of iron and nickel along with about equal parts of olivine. This metal-silicate mixture leads scientists to believe that they represent the mantle of their differentiated parent body. Like other meteorites, Stony-Irons show evidence of melting and recrystallization. The name Pallasite came from the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas who described a meteorite found near Kransnojarsk, Siberia in his journals in 1772.

Four centuries ago during Spain's conquest of South America, a Spanish Governor learned from the native people of Argentina about a stone that they believed had fallen from heaven. He sent for Captain de Miraval to form an expedition who returned with a huge piece of iron meteorite that became known as "Meson de Fierro".

Campo del Cielo, in today's Argentina , means field of the sky or heaven, which seems appropriate. There are a series of craters found at the main site. Recovered meteorites are found in and around a series of small craters; the largest crater being about 260 by 217 feet in diameter. All together, searchers have found at least 12 craters.

Iron meteorites represent the core of their parent bodies and represent the largest meteorites recovered to date. This is evidence of an iron meteorite's durability and resistance to fracturing and weathering.

A polycrystalline coarse octahedrite, Campo del Cielo has a nickel content of 6.5 to 7.2%.

When Campo del Cielo is cut, polished, and etched with Nitric Acid or Ferric Chloride, it shows evidence of its past through etched surface patterns. This is due to the two primary nickel-iron alloys found in octahedrites, producing a curious pattern that was first discovered by William Thompson in 1804, but then later by Alois von Beckh-Widmannstätten who was in charge of a private technology collection of the Holy Roman Emperor, Franz I.

Widmannstätten's discovery of the crystalline structure of iron/nickel meteorites was made in 1808 when he etched slices of an iron meteorite from Zagreb. He then made direct prints of the etched surfaces, which were published several years later.

Why does this etching process work? It goes to the heart of the iron meteorite's internal chemistry, two alloys of iron-nickel called kamacite and taenite. These form crystalline systems as the meteoritic liquid begins to cool. Which one forms depends on the nickel percentage, how long it takes to cool, and the temperature at which recrystallization occurs. When etched with nitric acid, the meteoritic kamacite is more easily dissolved than the taenite, resulting in the taenite to stand out more in relief on the etched slice.

Now known as the "Widmannstätten Pattern", it is a feature not found in any Earth rocks, nor can it be replicated in the laboratory. It is unique to iron meteorites.

Three forms of carbon are associated with meteorites. Graphite nodules, one of these forms, can ablate from the meteorite as it passes through the atmosphere or through weathering. Graphite nodule specimens tell another part of the Campo del Cielo meteorite story, as well as meteorites as a whole .

Graphite nodules, the most common of the meteoritic forms of carbon, are a soft form of carbon; some have joked that they are the natural form of a pencil! Meteoritic diamonds, the high-pressure form of carbon within meteorites, are also occasionally found in some iron meteorites. These minute diamonds are rare and are often found when the meteorite is being cut: the saw blade slows as the diamond is encountered.

Canyon Diablo
Iron. Coarse Octahedrite (IAB)
Coconino County, AZ

The Canyon Diablo meteorites tell a story of scientific controversy and the rise and fall of the ambitions of a mining engineer from Philadelphia.

Near the time of the dawn of modern homo sapiens in North America, fifty thousand years ago, a 300,000 ton mass of iron and nickel was hurtling towards modern-day northern Arizona at over 25,000 mph. Born in the interior of a long since destroyed planet, it hit the Earth with the force of over a two-megaton atomic bomb. Most of the meteorite vaporized upon impact, creating a crater a mile wide and over 500 feet deep.

Only about a tenth of the original mass survived, littering the surrounding plains over several miles with fragments of iron meteoritic material. The crater once called Coon Butte, is now known as the Barringer Meteorite Crater, named after Daniel Moreau Barringer who at the turn of the century was convinced that the crater was caused by the impact of a super-massive iron meteorite. Barringer was able to convince investors of his theory with a plan to sell off the giant meteorite for millions of dollars. Although Barringer was right about his theory that Coon Butte was an meteoric impact crater, he exhausted his adult life and a sizeable fortune in search of the "gold" that was destroyed upon impact.

Barringer stood firm in his theory that the crater was created by a giant meteorite impact, but the massive meteorite was never found. However, over 45 tons of meteoritic material has been recovered from this fall, a portion of which is in the collection of the MeteoriteKit.

Over 256 kilograms of this high-metal, high-total iron Chondrite were recovered in the year 2000. With an "H" classification, Dhofar 020 has high iron content. When cut and polished, the meteorite shows a dark brown to almost black internal matrix.

Stone meteorites are from their parent body's crust and mantle, as represented by Dhofar 020. The most abundant minerals in stones are olivine and pyroxene, along with iron-nickel grains in the form of metal grains. H-Chondrites, or high-iron, contain between 25 to 31% total iron by weight. This makes meteorites like Dhofar 020 easy to attract to a magnet.

In April 2003, a previously-unknown iron meteorite was found with a total recovered weight in excess of 500 kilograms. Dronino is classified as an Ataxite, meaning a high nickel content (when compared to other iron meteorites) and no crystalline pattern when sliced and etched.

Oleg Guskov, who lives in Moscow , first found Dronino when returning home from collecting mushrooms in July 2000 near the village of Dronino . As he walked along a path leading along the edge of a forest, he noticed a rusty piece of metal sticking out of the white clay soil. The meteorite could not be dug out of the clay with a knife, so he returned with a shovel and a wheelbarrow to extract the meteorite and take it home. The specimen sat in the yard for a couple of years, splitting into three pieces. Guskov eventually took it to The Laboratory of Meteoritics in Russia, who, after analysis, determined it to be meteoritic.

These meteorites were found in 1954 on the desert's surface. The stones are what meteoriticists call "fresh" internally and show only slight signs of weathering. Xenolithic refers to meteorites composed of different mixed lithologies; that is two meteorites in one. One might find a dark matrix adjacent to a light yellow colored matrix.

Ghubara is a low iron meteorite, meaning they contain about 20 to 25% iron. Ghubara was found on the surface of the desert in Ghubara, Jiddat Al Harasis, Oman. The first sample was recovered by the British Museum of Natural History. Other Ghubara meteorites were recovered in 1956 and 1958, making at that time a total known weight of 254 kilograms. Since the original find hundreds of more meteorites have been recovered, making the current recovered weight over 500 kilograms.

Over 168 kilograms of this low iron Chondrite have been recovered since the initial find of two meteorites in November 1995 by Professor Jim Kriegh while prospecting for gold with a metal detector in an area of arroyos draining the White Hills. Kriegh, a retired civil engineering professor, is a member of the Desert Gold Diggers, a group whose members spend their spare time gold prospecting. Kriegh had heard a talk on how to identify meteorites.

Gold Basin meteorites are found over an approximately 50 square mile area of Mohave County in northwest Arizona . These meteorites are believed to have impacted at the end of the last Ice Age. When sliced, Gold Basin shows a rich tan to dark matrix with metal flakes easily visible.

In 1828, a 9.265 gram Imilac was presented to the British Museum and 1.8 kilograms to the Royal Scottish Museum that had been recovered by an Indian by the name of Jose Marie Chaile.

There are two types or forms of Imilac meteorites recovered. One type shows the beautiful olivine crystals in the iron-nickel matrix when sliced. The other type of Imilac meteorites are iron-nickel fragments. Over time weathering removes the characteristic olivine found in Pallasites, leaving behind strangely-shaped iron-nickel fragments. Because of their beauty and popularity with collectors and museums, both types of Imilac are becoming more difficult to obtain.

Chinese tektites are known as Lei-gong-mo, which means "Thunder God Ink-black Stone." Literature describing Lei-gong-mo dates back to 900 AD and earlier, at least 1,000 years. Joseph Mayer referred to tektites in 1788, describing them as a type of volcanic glass. F. E. Seuss, an Austrian geologist, was the first to use the term "tektite" in 1900. A. Lacroix of France named these specific types of tektites "Indochinites" in the 1930's.

Chinese tektites are part of the huge Australasian Strewn Field, which includes Australia and New Zealand, Cambodia, southern China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Java, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The Australasian Strewn Field is by far the largest in size, shape, and variety. These tektites also appear to be the youngest tektites yet recovered; about 750,000 years old.

Irgizites (occasionally spelled Irghizite) are found at the 13.5 km-wide Zhamanshin crater. They contain coesite, stishovite, maskelynite and melted foamed silica. The Zhamanshin crater is estimated to have formed approximately 900,000 years ago.

The elements nickel, cobalt and chromium are found in Irgizites at levels significantly higher than local geological material, which, along with their shapes and internal structure, leads to the conclusion they were formed due to impact. As with all tektites, Irgizites have a very low water content; thus called "dry glasses." Most Irgizites appear like broken strips of melted glass flow.

Sometimes cut and polished into beautiful shapes for jewelry, these tektites from the Czech Republic and Austria are known as Moldavites. Discovered in the late 1700's Moldavites, are pale green in color with fine indented edges. Moldavites are about 14.7 million years old. Some researchers link the Ries Crater meteorite impact at Nordlingen in southern Germany with Moldavites.

In addition to their beautiful natural green color, Moldavites are also noted for their distinctive shapes and textures. Moldavites are often cut and faceted for jewelry. Some people also believe they contain a mystical power. The largest Moldavite recovered to date weighs close to 500 grams.

Northwest Africa 869 or NWA 869 was discovered in 1999. It is estimated that 1,500 kilograms of this high-iron Chondrite has been recovered, making it one of the largest total known weight meteorites to come out of Northwest Africa.

Northwest Africa 869 meteorites vary widely, making its final classification difficult. UCLA originally classified NWA869 as an L4, but later reclassified it as an H5; classifications by other laboratories and institutions have ranged from L3.9 to L6. This meteorite has also been given other names, including NWA 787 and NWA 900.

Northwest Africa 869, or NWA 869 is an attractive meteorite with a number of distinguishing features. When cut and polished, the matrix is full of color and chondrules and can vary significantly in appearance from slice to slice, even within the same sample. It is also possible that it may contain carbonaceous inclusions as well as show brecciation.

If one examines a slice of NWA 869 carefully with a magnifying glass, they will see these small chondrules, about a millimeter in diameter. These spherical crystals are composed of minerals such as olivine and pyroxene. The term chondrule comes from the Greek chondros , meaning a grain of seed.

Carbonaceous Chondrites are rare meteorite types, the most primitive of all meteorites. They appear to be similar to the pre-solar nebula due to the abundance of elements in Carbonaceous Chondrites, which has profound implications that these meteorites were born of material that may predate our solar system, and as such may be from another star system in the Milky Way, or even from another galaxy.

The CV type, named after Vigarano, Italy, contains less than 0.2% carbon and 0.03% water. Carbonaceous Chondrites contains large amounts of the magnesium-rich minerals olivine and serpentine and can also contain a variety of organic compounds, including amino acids. Although fewer than 100 carbonaceous chondrites are known, they provide a great deal of information about the origin of the Sun and planets, and possibly even life itself.

Northwest Africa 2803, a low iron chondrite, was found prior to February 2004. A total of around 4.5 kilograms for this specific find were recovered. Many slices show a brown matrix "peppered" with white and metal specks. Some NWA 2803 slices can be almost dark brown in color.

Occasionally finds and falls have small total kilogram weight recoveries. Whereas around 4.5 kilograms of NWA 2803 were recovered, this is a fairly low amount for Saharan desert meteorites, especially when considering a meteorite like Northwest Africa 869. Once all specimens are added to museum, research, and personal collections, no additional specimens are available unless someone decides to sell or trade a specimen.

Desert Nomads discovered this beautiful Mesosiderite in 2004 in the Moroccan Desert and has produced spectacular slices. It can appear as a rich black matrix full of iron-nickel fragments. Mesosiderites are usually fairly equal mixtures of metal - (iron and nickel) - and silicates (pyroxene and plagioclase).

Mesosiderites are quite different than their "fellow" Stony-Irons, the Pallasites with the exception that they both originate from their parent body's mantle. Mesosiderites are broken mantle that has been assembled with lighter silicated material. In most Mesosiderites, the ratio of metal to silicates is about 1:1.

On March 16, 2000, thousands of stones were found on the surface of the desert in Oman, later given the identification of Sayh Al Uhaymir 001. The total mass of this low iron meteorite recovered to date is greater than 400 kilograms. When cut, Sayh Al Uhaymir 001, or SaU 001, is extremely beautiful with a colorful dark internal matrix. Many slices of SaU 001 are also chondrules-rich.

Thirty-nine meteorites were found by individuals during 1999-2000 doing field work in the Oman desert searching for meteorites. Notable finds were two lunar meteorites, three Martian basalts, and four large meteorite showers were found, including SaU 001.

Near the beginning of the Cold War, a fireball of blinding intensity exploded over rural Russia. Some feared that it was an atomic bomb attack by the Americans.

Occurring in the late morning of February 12, 1947, the fireball's brightness exceeded the Sun according to eyewitnesses. The ensuing explosion sent a shower of meteorites to the forested Sikhote-Alin Mountains, producing 106 impact holes.

Highly prized by collectors, Sikhote-Alin meteorites resemble bomb shrapnel.

87 million years ago it is theorized that an asteroid with a mass of approximately 35 cubic miles struck the Earth in what is now the Sudbury region of Canada. A crater, more than 60 miles in diameter and over 8 miles deep, was instantaneously created by the Sudbury incident. Material fell back from this impact.

This sample shows highly brecciated features.

Sudbury metal-rich breccias contain some amount of iridium, cobalt & selenium. In addition, most specimens also contain some nickel, iron, sperylite, and pentlandite as well. These metal-rich breccia samples can be pure metal to pieces of the impact metal breccia with other impact material.

Vaca Muerta
Stony-Iron. Mesosiderite (MES)
Taltal, Atacoma, Chile

As our planets formed, violent impacts occured throughout the solar system. Some objects were impacted countless times by many different types of material that caused their parent bodies to break up, mix, and fuse again. Such was the case of the Mesosiderite, Vaca Muerta.