Mike wrote:
"Only one way to know, cut it, etch it, do a ni test. Otherwise it could be
anything."
Hi Mike,
By posting, I just hoped to get some opinions on the shape, which I am
purposely not commenting on as it relates to meteorites in order to get some
feedback. Like someone's mother said, why should I be the nurse, when I can
be the doctor for this meteorite? Or was it, why be the nurse when you can
be the doctor :-)
Had my Mom told me that, by now, I probably would be the right doctor to ask
what to do now!
You are right about determining authenticity, of course. The problem is
that we are dealing with a quite small sample and the circumstances are not
bad. If I had, say, over 200 grams of an ugly shape, then I would
definitely take your advice. But here there is a minor but exciting chance
that it might somehow pan out. I am not sure how much service I would be to
the specimen if I learn it is a meteorite, but in the process destroy a
major portion of it and screw up its very distinguishable shape.
What I am thinking of doing is filing it enough to do a Nickel test, which I
can do just fine if I want. What I don't like about that is, from my past
experience, I have to file a relative deep grove to get a reasonably
trustworthy result, and that will disfigure this small piece (for the tiny
chance it really is a meteorite and bla bla bla).
How many classified irons are there out there anyway, of under 100 grams
TKW? Of what use besides personal gratification of knowing will my
whatever-it-is-object be? If it really were unique, could something this
small be useful to science in some reasonable way and how should I handle
this if that were a major concern? Even if it were a meteorite, it is
unlikely it would have enough commercial value to worry about that.
I'm going to be very interested to see what I end up doing, not because of
high hopes, but rather, to know what I should do with such a small candidate
iron in general. For the moment, the only thing is see is that a negative
test result might save me a very long trip back, prepared with a metal
detector and more respectable meteorite hunter's toolkit. If I can find
more, having samples for testing will be no problem, and I will have marred
this piece for nothing.
At the moment, I am thinking of doing something like David's sphere
collection: Just dump the whole thing in acid for etching, gently clean it
to look for any markings first, and then polish and let it etch. But, that
would screw up some potential science....so I hope to get some opinions on
shape, after all, Nininger wrote a whole volume on it.
Best wishes, Thanks for the comments.
Having and eating my cake with hot chocolate right now,
Doug
http://www.diogenite.com/maybe.html
Dear Listees,
I quickly just wrote up the circumstances of a new
UFO (Unidentified Found
Object), and hope the great list can give me some
meteorite-relevant
comments relating to the form and texture of this
iron object. It seemed to
be the only metallic object for a distance around,
though small, it stood
out remarkably and in plain sight...
Story and pictures below at the link.
Thanks in advance for a little list magic and
meteoritic indulgence,
Doug
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