Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

The largest piece, to date, of the Chelyabinsk meteorite has just been recovered from a lake in central Russia, where it landed in February of this year. Divers carefully raised the 5-foot-long stone from a depth of just over 42 feet of water.  Attempts to accurately weigh the meteorite were thwarted when the scale broke…

The October 2013 volume of Astronomy Magazine includes an article written by CMS Director Meenakshi Wadhwa! The article, "Order from Chaos: Genesis samples the solar wind" details the ongoing analysis of solar wind samples captured and returned to Earth by NASA's Genesis mission.  You can read more about Genesis here, and learn about analysis of…

Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewings has just released a limited-edition beer called Celest-jewel-ale, made with a very special ingredient: Lunar meteorites.  The lunar brew is available only at the Dogfish Head restaurant, and is served in a koozie made from the same material as the Apollo mission spacesuits.  You can read all about this unique beverage…

Lodran is an achondrite that fell in eastern Pakistan the afternoon of October 1st, 1868.  The stone’s fall was witnessed, and people reported hearing the meteorite’s entry, as well as seeing dust rise from its impact. Lodran is the type specimen for the lodranite meteorite group.  Like acapulcoites, lodranites are primitive achondrites of asteroidal origin…

In a new article for Future Tense, a collaboration among ASU, Slate magazine and the New American Foundation that explores how emerging technologies affect policy and society, CMS Director Meenakshi Wadhwa describes how collecting meteorites in Antarctica allows scientists to explore the Solar System without leaving Earth.  You can read the article, published in Slate…