Treasure of the month May: A 424 kg thick iron meteorite
1 May 2018
Photo: UHH, RRZ/MCC, Mentz
The largest meteorite shown in Germany was once found in Namibia.
In the Museum of Nature - Mineralogy, not only earthly minerals can be marveled at on 500 square meters with around 1500 objects, but there are also extraterrestrial things to look at here: Meteorites - ambassadors from the vast expanses of space. Like the largest meteorite on display in Germany - an iron meteorite weighing 424 kilograms, which comes from the distant asteroid belt, once fell from the sky in Namibia and was already acquired in 1905 for the then Natural History Museum in Hamburg.
In total, the important meteorite collection of LIB comprises 944 extraterrestrial samples representing 726 different meteorite finds and cases. Through its own search expeditions and scientific work on meteorites, the meteorite collection has seen a large increase in recent years.
Extraterrestrial ambassadors are also fragments coming from Mars and the Moon. They were once ejected from the surface of these celestial bodies when smaller objects from space hit them. They then traveled through space for a long time before finally crashing to Earth.
Most meteorites, however, formed during the formation of our solar system and therefore tell something about its birth. Scientists at the museum can read a lot about the universe from them - without having to leave the earth.