A Meteorite Mystery: First Meteorite From Mercury Found?
Image Credit: Stefan Ralew
Could this stone be the first meteorite from Mercury ever found? WUSTL’s meteorite expert sifts the evidence.
Early in 2012, someone in Southern Morocco picked up 35 greenish stones, including the one shown. Purchased by a dealer in Erfoud, Morocco, it was then resold to Stefan Ralew, a meteorite collector from Berlin.
The dealer was demanding a high price, and Ralew may have hesitated. But the wrinkled glassy coating on one face of the rock was clearly a fusion crust, a kind of glaze that forms when a meteorite is heated as it passes through the atmosphere.
Looking at other faces he would have recognized it as a type of meteorite called an achondrite, says Randy Korotev, WUSTL’s meteorite expert. That meant it was an exceptional stone.
Full Story: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25222.aspx
