Imilac meteorite from London's Natural History Museum

Posted by David Eicher
on Monday, October 7, 2013

Imilac meteorite // Credit: David J. Eicher
On Astronomy’s August tour of London, some 25 readers and I had the great pleasure of seeing many important astronomical sites in England. 

What a great treat it was while I was in England to visit Caroline Smith, collections manager of the Earth Sciences Department, Mineral and Planetary Sciences Division, of London’s famous Natural History Museum. Caroline graciously spent time showing treasures of the meteorite collection, and we shot several videos showing a number of representative samples, the third one of which I share here.

In it, Caroline describes a specimen of the Imilac meteorite, a rare pallasite that was found in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 1822. This is one of the largest slices of a pallasite meteorite in the world. Enjoy!

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