Iron Meteorite Dust with Galaxy Sticker

Description

Iron meteorites come to us from large asteroids with molten cores that once orbited the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Extremely slow cooling of those cores, over millions of years, allowed nickel-iron alloys to crystallize into fantastic geometric structures known as Widmanstätten Patterns. Much like snowflakes, the pattern of every iron meteorite is unique. Catastrophic collisions within the Asteroid Belt shattered some asteroids, sending pieces in all directions. Some of them eventually encountered Earth’s gravitational pull, resulting in a fiery journey through our atmosphere at speeds up to 100,000 miles per hour!

This quaint glass vial contains genuine iron meteorite “dust.” Aerolite’s meteorite dust is collected in our preparation laboratory, when a larger specimen is sawn into slices. Similar to how sawdust is created.