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iron meteorite

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iron meteorite

(iron) One of the main classifications of meteorites, containing nickel-iron alloys with small amounts of accessory minerals. The composition averages 90% iron, 10% nickel. The three main subdivisions are octahedrites, which have more than 6% nickel, the less common hexahedrites, with less than 6% nickel, and the nickel-rich ataxites. See also Widmanstätten figures.
Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

iron meteorite

[′ī·ərn ′mēd·ē·ə‚rīt]
(astronomy)
A type of meteorite that consists mainly of iron and nickel and is several times heavier than any ordinary rock.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
A number of iron meteorites, including a 20-tonne fragment, had previously been found in the area not far from the Hiawatha site.
Meteoriticists (me-te-or-it-i-cists--scientists who study meteorites) classify these fallen rocks into three basic categories: stony, stony-iron and iron meteorites. Stony meteorites make up about 90% of the fallen rocks, and typically contain silicate minerals, molten cosmic dust balls, minerals and some metal.
More than a century after Britain's only iron meteorite plummeted into a field in Shropshire, the UK's first information centre dedicated to the study of the threat of an asteroid or comet hitting earth was launched yesterday.
Also on display was a nickel shim of his Iron Meteorite (2000) - an extremely bright surface-relief rainbow hologram with the meteorite looking so solid and tangible that at first glance one could be forgiven for thinking it a real piece of rock mounted in front of a rainbow pattern.
iron meteorite and will be mounted so that children may touch it.
But where did this great iron meteorite come from and how did it come to take it's place in the spirits and minds of the Crees and Blackfoot who revered it as `the face of a god' and guardian of the herds?
The result is that no iron meteorite from the past is ever found where the earliest civilizations flourished.
Caption: The high metal content of this iron meteorite, called Lebanon, makes it appear darker and shinier than most other Martian rocks.
Farmer did, however, sell an iron meteorite from Oman for $200,000 (OMR 77,000).
The team was able to classify it as an ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with high contents of nickel.
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