[meteorite-list] AD: Special: NWA 5243 - a thought about a fine L3

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 20:26:11 +0200
Message-ID: <017f01c8c1b9$793ef9e0$177f2a59_at_name86d88d87e2>

Dear collectors,

it's definitely time again for a Special.
Today it's about a pretty and fine unequilibrated L3: NWA 5243

Normally we would have to emphasize the aesthetical aspects of type-3
chondrites, the colourful variety and density of chondrules, wherefore they
are so esteemed by the initiate and the beginner likewise.
Also a good mean for wet the appetite, especially if the stone wouldn't be
that fresh and pretty than NWA 5243, it could be to refer to the sheer
rareness of that type - let's see the stats, from the 46,445 entries in the
Bulltin Database only 563 numbers, finds, falls are an L3-type, among them
only
142 are non-Antarctic,

but let's find a hint, why meteorites in general and in particular the 3ers
are by far more than simple curios, more than only lumps of rocks, falling
from time to time from sky with a nice light&sound-show, sometimes leaving a
hole in the ground.

Please take a look!

http://athene.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/teaching/a202/OriEODsk.gif

http://www.2spare.com/_media/imgs/articles/a43_Protoplanetary.jpg

http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/im-planets/circumstellar-disk.jpg

In what for thrilling times we're living! These pictures show the disks of
gas and dust around new young stars, only since a few years we are able to
image these protoplanetary disks directly!

In these disk new planets are formed, it takes only a sneezing, not more
than 10 millions of years, and the disk will have disappeared and a new
solar system is born.

Type-3 chondrites bring us closest to that moment, when the first lumps
condensed and accreted from the circumstellar disk, which once surrounded
our own Sun. They match closest the matter, which first formed the
planetesimals, and the planetesimals in turn the planets and the Earth.
Farther back we can't come.

The chemistry, the minerals, the chondrules, their size and the distribution
of their size in them
- all preserved to the best in type-3-chondrites - help us to understand,
what is going on in these circumstellar disks and finally, where we all stem
from.

With such a meteorite you have a front row seat in modern space exploration.


That's also the reason, why we always recommend a Type-3 if we get requests
from exhibition planners, and that is the reason for collectors, specialized
solely in irons, for often choosing an L3 od H3 as their only reference
piece for a stone meteorite.

NWA 5243 has all a L3 needs, with W2 it is fresher than the average and with
S2 only weakly shocked.

And the ticket for the time machine costs you today:
10$ a gram for the small slices and
8$ a gram fort he large ones.
All slices one side polished, one side grinded and better looking than on
the photos.

http://www.chladnis-heirs.com/special-nwa5243.html


Have a pleasant flight!

Stefan Ralew & Martin Altmann
Chladni's Heirs
Munich - Berlin
Fine Meteorites for Science & Collectors
Received on Thu 29 May 2008 02:26:11 PM PDT