stony meteorite
A stony meteorite is a meteorite composed of mostly silicate minerals (75–90% by weight), together with nickel-iron metal alloy (10–25%), and iron sulfide. Stony meteorites are a very varied group, ranging from virtually unaltered samples of matter that date back to the dawn of the Solar System, some 4.55 billion years ago, to rocks with a complex history that have come from large differentiated worlds, such as the Moon or Mars.
Stony meteorites account for 95% of all known falls. The majority (86% of all falls) are chondrites, the rest are achondrites.
Largest known stony meteorites | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
meteorite | country | fell | class | group | mass (kg) |
Jilin | China | 1976 | chondrite | H5 | 1,770 |
Norton County | USA | 1984 | achondrite | aubrite | 1,073 |
Long Island | USA | 1948 | chondrite | L6 | 564 (broken) |
Paragould | USA | 1930 | chondrite | LL5 | 371 |
Bjurbole | Finland | 1899 | chondrite | L/LL4 | 334 (broken) |