Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Apply by January 30, 2026. The Nininger Student Travel Award supports attendance of the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) of 4 School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) undergraduate and graduate students, to present their latest results in the fields of meteoritics and planetary science. Awards will be up to $1000 for those…

Petersburg is a eucrite (achondrite) whose fall was witnessed August 5th of 1855, in Tennessee. Eucrites are the most common type of achondrite meteorite falls (vs. finds) and are believed to form from cooling of magma on the surface of the Asteroid 4-Vesta; the number 4 refers to Vesta being the fourth asteroid ever discovered,…

The Johnstown meteorite fell the afternoon of July 6, 1924, in Weld County, Colorado. Johnstown is an achondrite (meaning that it formed on a differentiated planetary body, and does not contain chondrules) from the diogenite group. Part of the HED (Howardites, Eucrites and Diogenites) group of achondrites, diogenites are believed to originate in the crust…

We are pleased to announce that Maizey Benner, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Arizona is the recipient of the 2023-24 Nininger Meteorite Award, and Daniel Sheikh, a Ph.D. candidate at Portland State University received an Honorable Mention for the award. Maizey’s paper “Microstructural analysis of phosphorus (P)-bearing assemblages in type 3 chondrites: Implications for…

Utrecht is an ordinary (L6) chondrite that fell June 2nd, 1843, in the Netherlands. The meteorite’s spectacular fall was described by Dr. E.H. Baumhauer (Annalen der Physik 142(12): 465-506). Three to four explosions, compared to loud cannon fire, were heard within a 25 km radius of the city of Utrecht, followed by a whistling that…