Meteorite

 Meteorite

noun

noun: meteorite; plural noun: meteorites

a meteor that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground. More than 90 percent of meteorites are of rock, while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron and nickel.

 

Meteorite, any fairly small natural object from interplanetary space, a meteoroid—that survives its passage through Earth's atmosphere and lands on the surface.

 

Meteorites are quite valuable, worth as much as $1,000 per gram, according to the LiveScience website. Kellyco Metal Detectors posted on eBay that it can sell for $300 per gram or more — meaning 1 pound could be worth $1 million. "Meteorites are rarer than gold, platinum, diamonds or emeralds

 

Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere and vaporizes, it becomes a meteor, which is often called a shooting star. Meteorite: If a small asteroid or large meteoroid survives its fiery passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands on Earth's surface, it is then called a meteorite.

 

Practically all meteorites contain a significant amount of extraterrestrial iron and nickel, so the first step in identifying a possible meteorite is the magnet test. Iron and stony-iron meteorites are rich in iron, and will stick to a powerful magnet so strongly that it can be difficult to separate them!

 

Is it legal to own a meteorite?

Yes. It is completely legal to own a meteorite, at least in the United States. Different countries have set different rules. Later in the article, we will examine the property rules for them in other places but we will examine the U.S. legal framework first.

There are some caveats for meteorite ownership though. While it is legal to own, buy and sell meteorite pieces first we have to answer who do they belong to when they first fall.

The standard land ownership rules apply for meteorites. The owner of the land where the meteorite falls becomes its legal owner.

 

Most meteoroids disintegrate when entering the Earth's atmosphere. Usually, five to ten a year are observed to fall and are subsequently recovered and made known to scientists.

Large meteoroids may strike the earth with a significant fraction of their escape velocity (second cosmic velocity), leaving behind a hypervelocity impact crater. The kind of crater will depend on the size, composition, degree of fragmentation, and incoming angle of the impactor.