Have you ever wondered if a rock you found might be a piece of space? Today, we’re diving into the world of meteorites and how to tell them apart from ordinary rocks, or as we like to call them, “meteor-wrongs.” Let’s explore this fascinating topic with Jim Holstein, an expert in geology and meteorites.
Meteorites are rocks from space that have made their way to Earth. Most of them come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As they travel through our atmosphere, many burn up, but the ones that reach the ground are called meteorites. There are three main types of meteorites: stony, stony-iron, and iron meteorites.
Stony Meteorites: These are the most common and often contain small, round structures called chondrules. If a stony meteorite lacks chondrules, it’s called an achondritic meteorite.
Iron Meteorites: These are dense and made mostly of nickel and iron. They often have unique patterns called Widmanstätten patterns, which are revealed when the meteorite is cut and polished.
Stony-Iron Meteorites: These are a mix of metal and silicate minerals, often containing beautiful green crystals called olivine.
So, how can you tell if a rock is a meteorite? Here are some clues:
Many rocks can be mistaken for meteorites. Here are a few examples:
If you think you’ve found a meteorite, don’t rely solely on the internet for identification. Instead, take it to a local university or museum where experts can examine it. They often provide this service for educational purposes.
Exploring meteorites is a fun way to learn about space and geology. So next time you find an unusual rock, you might just be holding a piece of the cosmos!
Gather a collection of various rocks, including some that resemble meteorites. Your task is to examine each rock and determine whether it is a meteorite or a “meteor-wrong” based on the characteristics discussed in the article. Use a magnet, a scale, and a magnifying glass to help with your identification.
Create a poster that illustrates the three main types of meteorites: stony, iron, and stony-iron. Include images, descriptions, and interesting facts about each type. Use your creativity to make the poster visually appealing and informative.
Conduct a simple experiment to simulate how meteorites form fusion crusts. Use clay balls to represent meteorites and a heat source to mimic atmospheric entry. Observe the changes and discuss how this relates to real meteorites.
Split into two groups and prepare arguments for a debate on whether a given rock is a meteorite or a meteor-wrong. Use evidence from the article to support your position. Present your arguments to the class and see which side is more convincing.
Plan a visit to a local museum or university with a geology department. Observe real meteorites and learn from experts about their features and origins. Prepare questions in advance to make the most of your visit.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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(singing) Meteorite and meteor-wrong, how to tell the difference, this is that song, meteor-wrong and meteorites. Knowledge from us will give you the sight. [laughing] Oh my goodness… [laughing continues, clapping, indistinct] [intro] Hey, we’re going to have a quiz at the end of this video, so make sure you pay attention, and then at the end, you can vote either in the poll or let us know in the comments below if you think what we’re talking about is a “meteor-right” or a “meteor-wrong.” We are here today with Jim Holstein, who is the collection manager of physical geology and meteorites. And today, we’re going to talk about meteorites and meteor-wrongs. – Hi, Emily. – Hi! – Ready to rock again? – I am ready to rock! J: So let’s review what meteorites are, first of all– E: Okay. J: Meteorites are from space, obviously they come from mainly between the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They fall pretty much every single day, but they mostly burn up in the atmosphere. The ones that reach the ground, we call meteorites. – So it’s meteoroid, meteor, meteorite. We’re going to talk about the different kinds here. – Mhm. There are three different types of meteorites: stony, stony iron, and iron meteorites. The most common types are stony meteorites, specifically the ordinary chondrites. – E: What does it mean to be a chondrite? J: Chondrites refer to the feature inside of these meteorites called chondrules. These are spherical inclusions that form in space as these meteorites were forming and they’re captured by the meteorites. E: And so what’s an achondritic meteorite? – That is without chondrules. – There you go. – But! There’s another big difference though. J: What’s in the center of the earth? E: A core. – And then? – A mantle and then the crust? – Yes, so the earth is differentiated. Okay, and meteorites—ordinary chondrite meteorites—are from bodies that are undifferentiated. So they don’t have— E: A core, a mantle, and a crust. – Yes. – So it’s just like rocks all the way down. J: Yeah, what’s that—what is a core made out of? E: Nickel and iron. J: That’s right. All that material, that nickel iron material, is scattered throughout the body. So what we’re doing today is figuring out how to tell the difference between a meteorite and a meteor-wrong. One is the mass because it has a higher metal content in it. E: So I pick it up and I’m like wow, this is heavier than I thought it should be; that might be clue number one. J: Clue number one… E: That I have a meteorite. J: Mhm. And when you flip it over and you look at the cut and polished surface, if you hold it just right to the light, you’ll see little flakes of metal inside of it. E: And that’s the iron? J: And that’s the iron nickel. E: But there are other indications that you might have a meteorite that you can maybe tell from the outside. So as these things are streaking into the atmosphere, it’s going super fast, right? And when it hits the air molecules, it generates heat, and that heat actually melts the outer surface. So take another ordinary chondrite like this… E: Yeah, this one got burned up. J: That one got burned up, and what usually happens with these meteors as they’re streaking through the atmosphere, the atmospheric pressure builds up in the front surface of it, and that actually causes them to explode. E: Oh, wow! J: And then the smaller pieces that are still tumbling through the atmosphere, those little pieces get a fusion crust, and that’s what that black surface is called. So when you flip it over to the interior surface, that’s what it looked like in space: that grayish-green material. E: So it got this while it was flying to the earth. J: Mhm. E: And that’s why it’s also not completely smooth, but it kind of has smoothed edges. J: It has smooth edges, rounded edges, and it creates different features that are also very common for meteorites. The best example I have right here is another ordinary chondrite, and this has these little indentations in there, and that happens when you have heated air wallowing out pieces of the rock. E: So it’s like in a river where some of the water gets in the bank and it kind of starts to carve out the edges a little bit. J: Yeah, exactly done, but it’s being done by super hot air. Typically these things are tumbling as they’re coming in, and so what happens sometimes with these things is that they don’t tumble; they come traveling straight into the atmosphere, and what that ends up doing is it becomes bullet-shaped. E: Oh! J: And you’ll see these features called flow lines. E: Okay. J: And you’ll see little lines coming up the side. So mass is typically going to have a fusion crust, and they might have these indentations on the surface caused by atmospheric entry. E: But you can’t just base it off of like the black coloration because this is a meteorite, but it doesn’t have the same sort of crust as this one. J: When it weathers for a long period of time, it actually removes some of those telltale signs. E: So the reason that it’s kind of rusty colored is because it’s been sitting on the surface of the earth. J: And then it becomes more difficult to identify what a meteorite is. E: Should we mention what this one is too? This is a special achondritic meteorite. J: This particular one came from a crust of a local planetary body. Can you guess where it is? E: The moon! It’s a moon rock! I’m holding the moon! J: You are literally holding the moon. E: Wow! This one feels more special than some of the other ones. J: It’s really rare. E: Really? J: Really, really. So next, let’s talk about the second group of meteorites, the iron meteorites. E: These are the second most common? J: Second most common, uh, less than ten percent. E: This is very heavy. J: These are really dense objects. I mean, these are primarily nickel iron. And here’s another one over here. I’m going to pick up—oh my goodness. To understand meteorites, we have to cut them open. So this is what we call an end cut. It has most of the outer surface, but it also has a nice smooth interior. E: You can see that different crust on these two. That one is a lot shinier and black, and this one you can tell it’s probably been sitting on earth for a while. J: Exactly, so that one is more weathered. E: But this side has all these really interesting intricate patterns in it. J: Widmanstätten patterns. E: Is that what that word is? J: Mhm. These were discovered in the mid-1800s by a scientist who determined that these types of meteorites have two types of alloys or two types of minerals: kamacite and taenite. And these are two different nickel-iron ratios, and those are the actual crystals. And to bring that feature out, you have to cut the meteorite, polish it really smoothly, and etch it with acid, and that brings out that feature. E: Wow… E: It’s so pretty! J: Mhm, and they come in different sizes, different widths, and it’s a function of how long it took for this meteorite to crystallize or solidify. E: So if you find one that has really big lines… J: …it takes a long time for it to cool. E: Wow! J: And this last one is an example of a stony iron meteorite. E: This is the rarest of all meteorites. J: Not necessarily. E: Really?! J: So this is the rarest of the three broad categories: stony, stony iron, iron, but the rarest are achondritic meteorites, and other types of meteorites within the stony group itself are even rarer still. E: And what makes this special other than the fact that it’s the prettiest? (laugh) J: You can see it’s heavy, right? E: Mhm. J: So it has nickel iron. But it also has these green crystals. J: And those are all olivine crystals. Yeah, and this type of olivine is found in the mantle of planetary bodies. So you have core material, then a mixing with mantle material, and this boundary zone actually solidifies as a meteorite when the body broke apart, and if you look at the outside fusion crust, you can actually see pieces of the green crystal. E: Yeah! E: Neat! E: It’s pretty even on the outside! J: Mhm. E: And on the inside. J: Aw! E: So now we’ve gone over the three major types of meteorites, and next we’re going to look at some meteor-wrongs! [buzzer sound] J: So first one. E: This guy. J: What do you think of that? E: I mean, it’s pretty heavy. It’s pretty dense. It’s about as heavy as one of these chondritic stony meteorites. J: It kind of has a darker crust on it; you know, it looks like it’s been weathered a little bit, but that’s terrestrial rock called the concretion. E: Really, what’s in it? J: So it’s basically an iron concretion. And so what you have is a nucleus, sometimes organic material, then you have sediments forming around it. Next one is one we see a lot of here. E: Okay. Ooh, this is interesting. J: Yeah, what do you see in that one? E: Well, it’s kind of got a darker crust, but it also has little crystals on the outside. J: Mhm, you can see the sparkle in the crystals. E: They look like quartz crystals. J: And you’re holding it. Like how’s it feel? E: It’s very light. J: It’s very light. E: I mean, it’s still a rock; it would hurt if I threw it at somebody. J: Haha, and so this is a piece of terrestrial basalt. This is an igneous rock, a fine-grained igneous rock. It has very small crystals inside of there, and look at this guy. E: And the third guy. E: Oh! E: This is way too light. J: And you can barely see any crystal growth on there too. The crystals are there, but they’re very, very small. But you see these deep, deep pits which are gases that were escaping from this material before it solidified. E: So this is a lava rock. J: So it’s a lava rock essentially. E: What’s this one? Ooh, this one is pretty dense. J: It’s pretty dense. E: Pretty heavy, little— J: So when it’s dense, like that at that size, you know, there’s a metal inside of there. E: Mhm. J: Well, let’s try something here. E: Wow! It’s magnetic! They stuck! J: Can you guess which mineral that is that’s magnetic? E: Magnetite? J: Magnetite, exactly. This is one I get a lot of. E: Yeah. J: And look at the outside, look at the inside. So this is manganese ore. People find these; they find them along train lines and so forth because you see them thrown away sometimes, and they end up here because people will think they’re a meteorite and rightfully so. It has a dark surface, the inside’s metal. It’s typically a little bit heavier. E: Okay. J: The ones we were looking at have been all natural, nature formed; this one is man-made. E: This is surprisingly light. J: Surprisingly light, exactly. E: For how big it is and it’s dropping— J: And it’s shedding all over the place. E: Sand on the table. J: So this is runoff from industrial manufacturing slag, or as some people call it, clinkers. And for me, this is the most common type of meteor-wrong that people bring in because they find these things. It looks like it’s been heated up. It looks like something melted. As a child, in fact, I would find pieces of this, and I would think that they were meteorites. That was my first exposure to meteorites as a child finding these things. E: I bet you just had pockets full. J: Oh my goodness. My mother hated me. E: Oh, yeah. How many washing machines did you ruin? J: That’s why they would call them clinkers because they would clink around in the dryer. E: Really? J: No. E: No, I’m so gullible. Alrighty. J: So those are the most common meteor-wrongs! E: Okay. J: You know what time it is? E: Quiz time! J: Quiz time! J: Here’s specimen number one. E: Specimen number one. J: For you and the audience. E: Ooh, this is going to be tricky. Okay. This one is pretty heavy. Um…I can’t tell if it’s heavier than I thought it was going to be, but it’s got a little bit of rust on the outside and it’s got some shiny metal bits. I’m going to go with this is not a meteorite. J: You’re right. E: Really?! I got it right! E: What is it? J: It’s magnetite. It’s the one you saw before. E: Oh, that’s the tricky one. J: The one that nails stick to. E: Yeah, okay specimen number two. E: This one. Ooh. Oh man, this one does have that really dark crust on the outside. It’s kind of heavy but doesn’t feel super heavy, but it also doesn’t have the pitting on the outside. But it kind of looks like another one of the meteorites on the table. I’m going to go with this is a meteorite. J: Womp, womp, womp. E: Oh no! It’s not a meteorite? You’ve seen that one already. E: Really! J: That’s the manganese ore. E: Oh, dang! J: And if you look at it really closely, you’ll see the manganese sticking out in some places. E: Ohh, like it’s shiny. J: So lesson to be learned, look very, very closely. E: I was wrong. Together: Specimen number three. E: This guy… wow… Oh jeez, this is lighter than I would have thought it was. It’s got a nice crust on the outside. It’s a little rusted. So like if it was a meteorite, maybe it landed and then was weathered. Uhmm… and it’s kind of got… it looks a little bit like a chondritic meteorite. J: Ah. E: I’m going to go with this is a meteorite. J: Yes. E: I got it! Nice! J: And the last one. E: This last one, okay. Wow, this one’s really light. This one is like kind of lighter than I would have thought. Well, this is confusing because like this part has really got that darker crust, and this is not as crusty looking. It doesn’t have those lines on it, but it does have pits on the outside and it does look like an achondritic meteorite with the shiny pieces of iron nickel in it. So I’m going to go with this is a meteorite. J: It is a meteorite, a chondritic meteorite. E: Alright Jim, so now that we’ve learned what is a meteorite and what is not a meteorite, what should someone do if they think that they found a meteorite? Well, first of all, don’t necessarily trust the internet. You need to take it to someone who knows about geology, who knows about rocks and minerals and meteorites. So take it to your local university, a local museum, and have someone identify it for you. E: Yeah, and they’ll do that for educational purposes? J: They usually do it for educational purposes. We, as a non-profit, don’t value specimens or appraise specimens, but we do have ID day here in September where people can bring in their rocks, minerals, and potential meteorites, and we’ll identify it for you. E: That’s so neat. Cool. Yay museums! J: Yay meteorites and? E: Meteor-wrongs! (outro)
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This version removes any inappropriate language and maintains a professional tone throughout the transcript.
Meteorites – Pieces of rock or metal from space that have landed on Earth’s surface. – Scientists study meteorites to learn more about the materials that make up our solar system.
Space – The vast, seemingly infinite area beyond Earth’s atmosphere where stars, planets, and other celestial bodies exist. – Astronomers use telescopes to explore the mysteries of space.
Rocks – Solid mineral material forming part of the surface of the Earth and other similar planets. – Geologists examine rocks from the Moon to understand its composition.
Atmosphere – The layer of gases surrounding a planet, such as Earth, held in place by gravity. – Earth’s atmosphere protects us from harmful solar radiation.
Asteroid – A small rocky body orbiting the Sun, mostly found between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt. – The asteroid belt contains millions of asteroids of various sizes.
Iron – A strong, magnetic metal that is a common element in the Earth’s core and in many meteorites. – Some meteorites are rich in iron, making them very dense and heavy.
Stony – Composed mainly of silicate minerals, often used to describe a type of meteorite. – Stony meteorites are the most common type found on Earth.
Identifying – Recognizing and naming something based on its characteristics. – Identifying different types of stars helps astronomers understand the life cycle of stars.
Features – Distinctive attributes or aspects of something, often used to describe characteristics of celestial bodies. – The surface features of Mars include large volcanoes and deep canyons.
Crystals – Solid materials whose atoms are arranged in a highly ordered, repeating pattern. – Scientists study crystals in meteorites to learn about the conditions in space where they formed.
