Planetary Geology - Tumblr Posts

I want to see meteorites

well lucky for you, i just took a whole class on planetary geology, so here's a couple of fun meteorites.

but first, a definition. meteorites are fragments of the primordial solar nebula that were not accumulated into the present planets or come from planets in our system.

widmanstatten structures are very cool and present in many meteorites and look like the photo below. they are brought out by acid etching meteorites after cutting and polishing them. they are thought to be formed in the centers of planetary and smaller bodies, and probably what the earth's core looks like.

stony-iron meteorites are popular favorites for slabs because they often are a mix of, as you might guess, iron and olivines. they look like this:

among the famous meteorites is allan hills 84001, a carbonaceous meteorite found in antarctica and from mars made famous for the potential biotic (made by living creatures) structures. this one has been the subject of heated debate, but personally i'm not convinced that it's biotic.

and another famous meteorite, angra dos reis. this is one of 6 meteorites classified as an angrite, a meteorite that (might be) from mercury. angrites are cool as hell and there's a lot out there about them and why they may or may not be from mercury, too much for me to discuss in this post, but i definitely recommend looking into them because they're really interesting.

meteorites are super cool! if you want to learn more, looking into the research around the two meteorites is a good intro to how meteorite research works, the challenges that comes with studying extraterrestrial objects, and the rigorous scientific debate that occurs within the planetary geology community. enjoy!