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How to Tell If the Rock You Found Is a Meteorite - Lifehacker

How to Tell If the Rock You Found Is a Meteorite - Lifehacker

How to Tell If the Rock You Found Is a Meteorite - Lifehacker
Jan 31, 2023 1 min, 6 secs

As cool (and lucrative) as it would be to chance on the remainder of a meteor that survived its trip through the atmosphere to strike Earth, finding a bonafide space-rock is lottery-winning lucky.

Still, it can’t hurt to check, so here’s a down-and-dirty guide to whether that cool looking chunk came from space or is just a dumb, boring Earth rock.

Research conducted at the University of Manchester and Imperial College suggest around 17,000 meteorites weighing between 50 grams and 10 kilos strike Earth each year, which might sound like a lot, but we’re talking about tiny objects randomly scattered across the whole planet.

Fusion crust: Meteorites are usually coated in an ashy black layer of fused rock caused by the intense heat generated when they pass through the atmosphere.

Non-streaking: If you rub most ordinary rocks against the unglazed side of a piece of kitchen or bathroom tile, it will leave a streak.

Check out this awesomely crotchety rant from lunar geochemist Randy L. Korotev from Washington University in St. Louis that begins: “In 2022, I was contacted 5,905 times by 2,095 different persons from 89 countries…Nearly all of these people questioned whether they had found, bought, or inherited a meteorite,” and ends with, “Other scientists who study meteorites have had the same experience and most no longer respond to questions from the public.”

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