[meteorite-list] Meteoroids Before Meteorites

From: ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 9:57:19 +0000
Message-ID: <20090313095719.7Z3H7.88876.root_at_web06-winn.ispmail.private.ntl.com>

and following on from that...what would an iron meteroid/aseroid look like in space....would there be any sign of metallic lustre or would space weathering have darkened the surface?

Graham Ensor

---- Eric Wichman <eric at meteoritewatch.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> While looking at photos of our most recent extraterrestrial visitor, the
> West meteorite, I was wondering what the "meteoroid" looked like while
> floating around in space... Look how nice and white this piece is on the
> "inside". http://www.rocksfromspace.org/133g_Interior.JPG Fusion crust
> is only formed while entering our planets atmosphere. Meaning that this
> meteorite was obviously whitish in color while still a meteoroid. Right?
>
> Space is a vacuum, and a vacuum preserves things right? Look at the moon
> and all the wonderful craters and how wonderfully preserved they are.
> The moon never changes color except when viewed through our atmosphere.
> From space it looks the same as it did millions of years ago.
>
> Does this mean that the West meteoroid, while in space and "before" it
> hit our planet, was white? I mean, it's not like the minerals that make
> up the meteoroid change colors before hitting our planet. Right?
>
> I guess the reason I ask this is that we all see photos of asteroids
> that are dark gray, gray-black or brown blobs of space rock floating
> around the solar system. I think our perception of meteorites are quite
> different. We tend to think of rocks from space as dark rocks floating
> around aimlessly and randomly bumping into one another occasionally
> sending pieces our way to be pulled in by our planets gravity.
>
> Are there huge white rocks floating around out there? And if so,
> wouldn't they be slightly easier to spot than a dark blob of an asteroid?
>
> I hope these aren't dumb questions.
>
> Eric
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Received on Fri 13 Mar 2009 05:57:19 AM PDT