A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause it to heat up and radiate energy. It then becomes a meteor and forms a fireball, also known as a shooting star; astronomers call the brightest examples "bolides". Once it settles on the larger body's surface, the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorites vary greatly in size. For geologists, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater.
Meteor Crater or Barringer Crater is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Canyon Diablo.
Boxhole is a young impact crater located approximately 180 km north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is 170 metres in diameter and its age is estimated to be 5,400 ± 1,500 years based on the cosmogenic 14C terrestrial age of the meteorite, placing it in the Holocene. The crater is exposed to the surface.
Charles Clyde Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was best known for his work documenting violence on the Mexico-United States border, especially in and around Ciudad Juarez.
Harry "Hap" Y. McSween Jr. is Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Planetary Geoscience at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He has published papers and popular books about meteorites and planetary exploration, and textbooks on geochemistry and cosmochemistry.
Albareto is a meteorite which in July 1766 fell near the frazione Albareto, of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Primitive achondrites are a subdivision of meteorites. They are classified on the same rank and lying between chondrites and achondrites. They are called primitive because they are achondrites that have retained much of their original chondritic properties. Very characteristic are relic chondrules and chemical compositions close to the composition of chondrites. These observations are explained as melt residues, partial melting, or extensive recrystallization.
Winonaites are a group of primitive achondrite meteorites. Like all primitive achondrites, winonaites share similarities with chondrites and achondrites. They show signs of metamorphism, partial melting, brecciation and relic chondrules. Their chemical and mineralogical composition lies between H and E chondrites.
IAB meteorites are a group of iron meteorites according to their overall composition and a group of primitive achondrites because of silicate inclusions that show a strong affinity to winonaites and chondrites.
IIICD meteorites are a group of primitive achondrites. They are classified in a clan together with the IAB meteorites and the winonaites.
IVB meteorites are a group of ataxite iron meteorites classified as achondrites. The IVB group has the most extreme chemical compositions of all iron meteorites, meaning that examples of the group are depleted in volatile elements and enriched in refractory elements compared to other iron meteorites.
The Eagle Station group is a set of pallasite meteorite specimen that do not fit into any of the other defined pallasite groups. In meteorite classification five meteorites have to be found, so they can be defined as their own group. Currently only five Eagle Station type meteorites have been found, which is just enough for a separate group.
The Eagle Station meteorite is a pallasite and type specimen of the Eagle Station group.
The Vermillion meteorite is a pallasite (stony-iron) meteorite and one of two members of the pyroxene pallasite grouplet.
The pyroxene pallasite grouplet is a subdivision of the pallasite meteorites (stony-irons).
The Winona meteorite is a primitive achondrite meteorite. It is the type specimen and by far the largest meteorite of the winonaite group.
Nonmagmatic meteorite is a deprecated term formerly used in meteoritics to describe iron meteorites that were originally thought to have not formed by igneous processes, to differentiate them from the magmatic meteorites, produced by the crystallization of a metal melt. The concept behind this was developed in the 1970s, but it was quickly realized that igneous processes actually play a vital role in the formation of the so-called "nonmagmatic" meteorites. Today, the terms are still sometimes used, but usage is discouraged because of the ambiguous meanings of the terms magmatic and nonmagmatic. The meteorites that were described to be nonmagmatic are now understood to be the product of partial melting and impact events and are grouped with the primitive achondrites and the achondrites.
Sara Samantha Russell is a professor of planetary sciences and leader of the Planetary Materials Group at the Natural History Museum, London. She is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society and of the Royal Astronomical Society.
CM chondrites are a group of chondritic meteorites which resemble their type specimen, the Mighei meteorite. The CM is the most commonly recovered group of the 'carbonaceous chondrite' class of meteorites, though all are rarer in collections than ordinary chondrites.
Alais or Allais is the first carbonaceous chondrite meteorite identified. It fell near Alès in 1806 in multiple fragments which together weighed 6 kg, although only 0.26 kg (9.2 oz) remains. The meteorite contains a number of elements in similar proportions to the Solar System in its primordial state. It also contains organic compounds and water. It has proved to be one of the most important meteorites discovered in France.
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