Watson,
Good to hear from you again! Any thoughts or questions are always welcomed.
Leo,
That is very interesting. If you had a 'name' or possibly a location I could look into it a little more. There are a lot of iron asteroids and other types (only when it hits the earth can it be called a meteorite) out there. It wouldn't surprise me that an iron that big would exist.
It sound perfectly plausible that it could have been part of a large body that was then destroyed. In our asteroid belt, the largest body is the dwarf planet Ceres. It's not a regular planet fir a number of reasons like size but also has not cleared it's orbit of all debris. Follow me on this, say said object was a planet destroyed but then got trapped in a stable orbit somehow like our asteroid belt. Traveling around this new orbit smaller bodies would fall in it's gravity and eventually become part of the whole. Essentially I'm saying that it possibly be a planet once again. Just an idea, any thoughts?
Marshall,
This was my first thread as a new member. At the time I wasn't sure where I should put it. If you think I would have better luck with it somewhere else then by all means please move it. I will gladly defer to your judgement. I was thinking more of not putting it in the wrong place. By the way, I really enjoy this site.
I have submitted a sample to NEMS. I have to dig through my records to find what they said, but I seem to recall them saying they didn't actually test it due to lack of funding. That's after I paid the $30. I did receive a piece of another registered meteorite. I am getting the feeling they are just selling meteorites. When I dig out the paperwork I'll post it here. I have talked to quite a few (not all) of the institutions on the list at your link.
I don't think it's an iron. I say stonyiron due to process of elimination, but that's just an educated guess from an amateur. I went to the Field Museum in Chicago last year. They have on display just about every terrestrial rock and mineral on display in one exihibit and a quite impressive display of meteorites in another. I recall an iron meteorite that was on display out where one could touch it. It was about the size of a common hassock. It looked like a piece of solid iron with a coppery hue. It really looked like a piece of mangled steel/Swiss cheese. It also contained nickel but it think it would have a stronger attraction to a magnet than my piece does. I do think it would sound similar if struck by a hammer. I didn't try this, they have a lot of security. The water test I describe in an earlier post really tells me this is not an iron. It can be found at
http://www.spacerocks.org/meteorite-identification.html in short most terrestrial rocks are 2.5 and lower. Most meteorites are 3.0 and above. Now most irons are more dense yet and can score 4.5 and above. I have to use a very strong magnet on my piece, and u think this wouldnt be necessary on an iron.
I used a metal detector on a piece and it did register on iron and nickel. I also bought some solution of dimethylglyoxine but after trying several objects, I realized I could only get a good reaction from a piece of 100% pure nickel. I am currently looking for some insight on nickel testing.
One of your other Moderators pointed to a place that could give me a complete chemical spectral analysis with an electron microscope for $200, which seems quite reasonable. But before I do that, I'm looking for someone who could then interpret this data for me.
I would never expect someone to come to a conclusion on it's authenticity based on a one minute video and would probably question it if you did.
Thanks for all your help guys and keep the great questions and comments coming!
Keith