Chondrite Meteorite

Chondrite meteorite weighing 260 grams and found in northwest Africa. This artifact was made possible through a gift from Katie and Travis Grimm.

Hadeon Eon Meteorite Strikes

For nearly 2 billion years, our planet looked quite different. It was the oldest age of Earth, called the Hadean Eon, when our planet surface was constantly pelted with meteorite strikes. The world was covered in oceans of magma. Eventually, these molten formations cooled and solidified into stone, forming the continental crust that covers our planet. The evidence of this fiery past is still preserved in geological formations called greenstone belts. The age of this artifact is estimated at 3.6 billion years old and is part of the Ishua Greenbelt.

Lunar Meteorite

Most meteorites are the remnants of planetoids from the early Solar System, but a small number originates from the lunar surface. As of 2023, only 649 of the over 80,000 known meteorite finds have been classified as lunar meteorites. This makes them incredibly rare. When a particularly strong impactor hits the Moon's surface, it can eject surface debris at speeds high enough to break from the body's gravitational pull, forming new meteors. This specimen is a sample of lunar meteorite N.W.A 13951, first identified in Mauritania in 2021. Its origin point lies somewhere in the Highlands, an area largely unexplored by the Apollo missions.

Muonionausta Meteorite

In 1906, evidence of a prehistoric meteorite impact was discovered in northern Sweden outside the town of Kitkiojarvi. The impact occurred over 1 billion years ago, and glacial processes brought fragments of it close to the Muonio River. It came to be known as the Muonionausta meteorite, an iron meteorite originating from the core of its parent body, which is estimated to have fragmented nearly 400 billion years ago, making this one of the oldest known meteorites on Earth, nearly as old as the Solar System itself.

Tektite

Within the dense forest of the Western Tasmania wilderness lies a relic from a massive airburst explosion roughly 816,000 years ago, leaving behind a rimless depression with a diameter of 1.2 km (0.7 miles). The intense heat and energy melted airborne debris, creating a field of meteoritic glass called Darwin Glass or tektites that reach out into the surrounding countryside. This specimen is a fragment of a Darwin glass tektite, formed during the impact event.

Shergottite

With no oceans and little moisture, dust storms are quite prevalent on the Martian surface. This specimen encapsulates pieces of this dust retrieved from Martian meteorite NWA7397 and represents a tangible connection to Martian basaltic materials that make up these dust storms. This meteorite impacted in Morocco and was discovered in 2012.