Meteorites

The stone gallery collection contains small pieces of meteorites  and also very large specimens of meteorites. Meteorites are pieces of stone or iron that fell to Earth from outer space. They are often small chunks of planetoids, but sometimes can be pieces up to kilometres in diameter. Like the planets, the planetoids orbit around our Sun.

A typical meteorite hits the surface of the Earth at a rate of approximately 100 metres per second.  On very rare occasions it is possible to witness a meteorite fall. These meteorites are referred to as “falls” as opposed to “finds” and are because of their fame, considerably more valuable. Eye-witness meteorite impacts and impact craters help make finding the meteorites easier and  the "witness falls" provide important information.