Space Travel Meteorite Pin

The Space Travel Meteorite Pin contains one Muonionalusta meteorite at its center, one of the oldest known meteorites, estimated to be over 4.5 billion years old. It was discovered in northern Sweden and is renowned for its distinctive Widmanstätten pattern, a unique crystalline structure formed by the slow cooling of iron and nickel in space. The Muonionalusta is set in stainless steel i order to preserve the timeless content within.

DIMENSIONS

Approximately 1" diameter

CARE INSTRUCTIONS

Avoid exposure to liquids to prevent rust. Even though the meteorite is treated to prevent oxidization, it is better not to tempt fate.

MUONIONALUSTA METEORITES: A TIMELESS STORY

The Muonionalusta meteorite is part of a group of iron meteorites, and its formation is linked to the early history of the solar system. Here’s a breakdown of the processes that led to its creation:

1. Formation of the Solar System

Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system began forming from a rotating cloud of gas and dust, known as the solar nebula. Gravity caused most of the material to gather at the center, forming the Sun, while the rest of the material started to coalesce into planetesimals, the building blocks of planets.

2. Differentiation of a Parent Body

Within the solar nebula, some of these planetesimals grew large enough to differentiate due to heat from radioactive decay and collisional energy. Differentiation is the process where a body separates into different layers, with heavier elements, like iron and nickel, sinking to form a core, while lighter materials formed a crust and mantle. The parent body of the Muonionalusta meteorite was such a differentiated body.

3. Cooling and Crystallization

The iron and nickel in the core of this parent body cooled very slowly over millions of years. This slow cooling process allowed the formation of the Widmanstätten pattern, a unique intergrowth of iron-nickel crystals (kamacite and taenite). This pattern is characteristic of many iron meteorites and cannot form on Earth due to the required cooling rate.

4. Catastrophic Collision and Ejection

At some point, the parent body of the Muonionalusta meteorite experienced a catastrophic collision with another large body in space. This impact shattered the parent body, sending fragments of it into space. These fragments included the iron-rich core material, which would later become iron meteorites like the Muonionalusta.

5. Journey to Earth

After being ejected from its parent body, the Muonionalusta meteorite traveled through space for billions of years. It likely spent much of this time in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before a series of gravitational interactions or another collision sent it on a trajectory toward Earth.

6. Arrival on Earth

The Muonionalusta meteorite eventually entered Earth’s atmosphere, where it experienced intense heat and pressure, resulting in the formation of a fusion crust on its surface. It fell to the ground in northern Scandinavia, where it was buried in glacial deposits and eventually discovered in 1906.