Pallasite Meteorite
category : Natural Attractions
Half iron and half stone, the meteorite weighs in at 1000 lbs. and is on display in the Big Well Museum at the Big Well Gift Shop. It is the largest meteroite of its kind yet discovered. The Space Wanderer was found on the Ellis Peck farm east of Greensburg, in 1948, by Mr. H.O. Stockwell of Hutchinson, Kansas, using a device similar to a mine detector, under 63 inches of topsoil. The Space Wanderer may be old beyond imagination and from far beyond our solar system. Meteorites or "shooting stars" have awed humanity throughout history.Meteorites are pieces of other bodies in our solar system that make it to the ground when a meteor flashes through our atmosphere at exterme speeds. A recovered mass of meteorites represents some of the scarcest material on earth, much rarer than gold.
Since the first Brenham pallasite was found in 1882 more than a ton of material has been recovered from that find, making Brenham the most available meteorite of a rare classification. To scientists, meteorites represent Nature's gift to help analyze other bodies in our solar system.
Meteorites vary greatly in structure and composition. Scientists have listed them according to many classifications and subdivisions. The three major types are stone, iron and stony-iron. Pallasite is a very scarce classification of stony-iron meteorites and contains crystals of olivine (peridot).
Pallasite got its name from Pallas, the discoverer of the meteorite in Krasnojarsk, Siberia. The total tonage recovered from the Brenham area indicates this scattered shower to be the largest on record.
View at the Big Well Center
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