SEDA JEWELERY

METEROITE PENDANT

This is a natural meteroite  slice from Sweden. I bought it at the Tucson  gem show  USA from the collectors. The meteriote name is Muonionalusta.

Silver bail

Weight 26.61 cts app

Size 21 x 13 x 3 mm app

Iron Meteorite Widmanstatten Patterns

Iron meteorites are composed primarily of various alloys of iron and nickel (primarily kamacite and taenite ). Iron meteorites are derived from the cores of ancient Planets that were destroyed around 4.5 billion years ago by catastrophic impact events during the formation of our Solar System. Most iron meteorites have unique crystalline structures known as "Widmanstätten" patterns. These patterns were named after the Austrian Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten who discovered these patterns in 1808. It is thought that the William Thomson actually discovered these patterns earlier and published his findings in 1804, however due to a variety of unfortunate events, Widmanstatten is more often credited with the discovery of these amazing patterns. Widmanstatten patterns are formed by interwoven bands of kamacite and taenite  which can only form over literally millions of years of very slow cooling. It has been estimated that it took about 1000 years for these molten remnants of planetary core to cool by just 1 degree Celsius! The beautiful crystalline patterns characteristic of iron meteorites are more than just beautiful oddities-they tell us about the meteorites compositions and how long it took for the planetary core from which the meteorite is derived to cool! In general, the larger the crystals, the longer it took for the molten metal to cool. The size of the crystals is also affected by the nickel content of the meteorite