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The Beautiful Fukang Meteorite
The Fukang meteorite, believed to be some 4.5 billion years old, which is as ancient as Earth itself, was unearthed near a town of the same name in China, in 2000. It is a pallasite, a type of meteorite with translucent golden crystals of a mineral called olivine embedded in a silvery honeycomb of nickel-iron. It's a gorgeous meteorite, and possibly the most stunning extraterrestrial piece of rock man has ever seen.
The Fukang meteorite was found by a hiker. The man had often stopped and had lunch on this giant rock, and he always wondered what the metal and crystals were. He finally took a hammer and chisel and broke some pieces off, which he sent to the USA to confirm that it was a meteorite.
The original meteorite weighted just over a thousand kilogram, but the rock was so brilliant that everybody wanted a piece of it. Since then it has been divided into dozens of thin slices and auctioned or distributed around the world.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/05/the-beautiful-fukang-meteorite.html (http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/05/the-beautiful-fukang-meteorite.html)
That is beautiful. One of my favorite museum trips is to the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. While everyone is looking at the dinosaurs, I want to hang out in the gem room.
They show stones in their natural state and then polished up or cut stones in jewelry. :biggrin:
This is the same mineral (or whatever it's called) in a green color.
http://geology.com/gemstones/gems-from-space/ (http://geology.com/gemstones/gems-from-space/)
Wow I was surprised he could lift that by himself.