The meteorite collecting community uses the metric system so weights are measured in grams and kilograms, and dimensions in centimeters and millimeters.Īs is the case with most collectibles, the commercial value of a meteorite is determined by a number of factors including rarity of type, provenance, condition of preservation, and beauty or aesthetic appeal. Photograph by Leigh Anne DelRay, copyright Aerolite Meteorites. Imilac is a particularly stable pallasite and examples such as this one, with clear and colorful crystals, are highly prized by collectors. Pallasites are believed to have formed at the core/mantle boundary of large asteroids and are among the most sought after of meteorite collectibles. This meteorite has been sectioned and polished to reveal beautiful translucent olivine crystals. Half slice of a pallasite meteorite: A 67.9-gram half slice of the Imilac pallasite from Chile's Atacama Desert.
Pallasite meteorite full#
There are a number of people, like myself, who work with meteorites full time, and a multitude of collector/dealers who operate part time meteorite-related businesses in order to help underwrite the cost of expanding their own personal collections. Today, space rocks are readily available from many different outlets and the quarterly Meteorite magazine caters to the space rock enthusiast, as does the monthly online publication Meteorite Times and the Meteorite Mailing List (online listserve). The magazines Astronomy and Sky & Telescope would occasionally publish articles on meteorites sometimes a small ad for "Meteorites" could be found among the back pages of those publications and the early dealers mailed out newsletters and handmade catalogs to their small customer bases.
In the pre-Internet days, with no popular print publication aimed at the budding space rock collector, it was difficult to meet fellow enthusiasts. A few of the natural history supply companies such as Ward's Natural Science were also a source for meteorite specimens but, for the most part, space rocks were the domain of academia and a few eccentric collectors.ĭuring the 1970s and early '80s bold enthusiasts such as Robert Haag, Allan Langheinrich, Marvin Kilgore, Blaine Reed and Edwin Thompson began turning their passion for space rocks into legitimate businesses and the modern world of meteorite collecting was born. Nininger opened his Meteorite Museum next to Route 66 in Arizona in 1946 and was one of the first people to start offering meteorite specimens for sale to the public.
The pioneering American meteorite scientist Harvey H.
At that time nearly all known meteorites were housed in universities and museums and private ownership was not commonplace. When I was a little boy growing up in England in the late 1960s, my greatest treat was traveling up to London’s marvelous Geological Museum (now part of the Natural History Museum, London) to visit their mineral and meteorite collections.
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