General
A meteorite is a fragment of spatial matter that survives its passage through the atmosphere and falls to the surface of a planet or a moon.
On earth most meteorites come from the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter but there are also known meteorites from the moon and mars.
Meteorites are always named after the place where they were found. If by chance another one is found at that place, then it gets an extra number or letter.
The official classification of meteorites is very complicated but roughly speaking we can distinguish three types: stone meteorites, stone-iron meteorites and iron meteorites.
Stone meteorites are by far the most common, about 94% of all meteorites found are stone meteorites. They are divided into two groups: the chondrites, and the achondrites.
Chondrites are named for the small, round particles (chondrules) they contain. They were formed at the beginning of our solar system when larger chunks were formed from the dust of the solar nebula by their electrostatic charge and gravity and are often considered to be "the building blocks of the planets". 86% of all meteorites on Earth are chondrites.
Achondrites, as the name implies, do not have these chondrules. Some scholars think that is because they do not come from the Asteroid Belt but from other asteroids and from the planets and moons. But the debate is ongoing.
Iron meteorites have a high weight due to the iron content, are magnetic and have a high nickel content. Because these meteorites are often large and sometimes beautifully shaped, this species is very well known to the general public. They sometimes exhibit the Widmanstätten structure. These are unique triangular structures that become visible when one cuts through the meteorite, polishes it and etches it with nitric acid.
Most iron meteorites are thought to come from the cores of the base material from which later on the planets were formed that were once molten (so-called planetesimals).
Only 1% of all meteorites are stony-iron meteorites. They consist of mixture of iron-nickel and silicate minerals. The very rare and precious pallasites are among them.
Since ancient times - beads made from iron meteorites have been found in northern Egypt dating back to 3200 BC - meteorites have had a great attraction to people. Usually they were used as ceremonial or religious objects.
Today, they are predominantly in demand by collectors and investors.
Specific
History: A total of about 1600 kg of iron meteorite shrapnel (thousands of pieces), ranging in mass from < 1 to 35,000 g, plus a single 83 kg individual completely covered with well developed regmaglypts, was found in and around the 45 m diameter Kamil impact crater by an Italian-Egyptian geophysical team in February 2009 and February 2010. Approximately 800 kg of the total mass observed in the field (the regmaglypted individual inclusive) was recovered. The Kamil crater was identified by V. De Michele, former curator of the Natural History Museum in Milan, Italy. The geophysical survey was carried out within the framework of the "2009 Italian-Egyptian Year of Science and Technology".
This specimen is a complete meteorite, showing the typical Regmaglypts in its surface. These are shallow, thumbprint-like dents on a meteorite’s surface. They form as the outer layer melts during its fiery fall through Earth’s atmosphere. Airflow wears away softer spots unevenly. You see them best on complete specimens because the original outer surface is still preserved.
