Stone and iron from space

Part of Hall of Meteorites.

A.3. STONE AND IRON FROM T copy hero

Meteorites are all rocks from space, but they are not all alike. The meteorites known as irons, for example, are more than 98 percent metal. Those known as stony-irons are a mixture of metal and rock. But the most common meteorites are stones, which can easily be mistaken for ordinary rocks from Earth.

A.3.1.3. Illustration. Iron of heaven
Meteoritics & Planetary Science journal
A.3.1.2. Gibeon. Metal from space
© AMNH/R. Mickens
A.3.2.2. Estacado. Older than the Earth A
© AMNH/R. Mickens

In This Section

Exhibit Irons Almost every iron meteorite comes from the iron center, or core, of an asteroid. Exhibit Stones Stony meteorites fall into two main groups: those that partially melted while they were in space, and those that did not melt.