Meteorite Muonionalusta – Norrbotten, Sweden

Perfect meteorite ball with a diameter of 2 cm.
It has beautiful Widmanstätten patterns all over its surface. 
Type:
iron meteorite, octahedrite IVA 
Locality: Norrbotten, Sweden 
Weight: 31-34g 
Size: 2 cm
Please note: The photo is for illustrative purposes only, all marbles look almost identical including the very similar distinctive pattern.


Delivery to:
14/11/2024
In Stock
Code: MEMO02
$193,09 $159,58 excl. VAT
Category: Polished and cut
Meteorite Muonionalusta – Norrbotten, Sweden
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The Muonionalusta meteorite fell to Earth an estimated one million years BC, making it one of the oldest known meteorite impacts. It comes from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is estimated to be more than 4.5 billion years old. This belt is an area where a large number of asteroids and meteorites are found, sometimes breaking off and travelling through space before eventually landing on Earth. Muonionalusta is therefore a fragment of one of these asteroids that survived its passage through the atmosphere and hit the Earth's surface.

The first fragment of the Muonionalusta meteorite was discovered in 1906 and others have been found throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, some of which weigh up to several hundred kilograms. It is classified as a fine Type IVA octahedrite and is known primarily for its beautiful Widmanstätten patterns, which are the disordered structures of the iron-nickel crystals that make up the meteorite. These patterns are formed by the slow cooling of the metal in space, but not all iron meteorites have these patterns. To see these patterns, the surface of the meteorite must be polished and then etched with dilute nitric acid, preferably with methanol.

Muonionalusta meteorite consists of approximately 91% iron, 8.4% nickel, trace amounts of rare elements such as gallium, germanium and iridium, and various minerals.

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