Muonionalusta Meteorite Partial Slice | Crystalline Structure Of An Iron Meteorite Revealed

Similar to lots 105 and 123. Muonionalusta meteorites are older than Earth and are among Earth’s longest guests with a residency of about one million years. The moment meteorites are exposed to Earth’s elements, they can begin to degrade, but not as much in deserts or where it’s really cold and Muonionalusta meteorites are found near the source of the Muonion River above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. 

The cut surfaces of this attenuated partial slice provide a striking display of Muonionalusta’s crystalline structure. As an extended cooling curve of millions of years is required for the molecules of the two major iron-nickel alloys of iron meteorites — kamacite (which has a low nickel content) and taenite (which has a high nickel content) — to crystallize, the pattern seen is diagnostic in the identification of iron meteorites. As meteorites which originate from different parent bodies contain different compositions, different patterns indicate different asteroids of origin (see lots 95, 101, 111 and 124). These patterns are referred to as Widmanstätten patterns in honor of Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten who happened to notice them. While working in Italy, researcher William Thompson also noticed this pattern and wrote a scientific paper about the same four years before the Count’s observation, but the Napoleonic Wars and instability in southern Italy at the time made it extremely challenging to be contact with his colleagues in England and his findings were not published in English until years later. There has been an effort to honor Thompson with what was his indeed his discovery by referring to such patterns as Thompson structures. Regardless of what they’re called, the pattern seen in the meteorite now offered is unusually robust. With one edge of the meteorite’s natural exterior surface and accompanied by a custom armature, this is a choice partial slice of a Muonionalusta meteorite.