A quick smug
Apr. 10th, 2014 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberett(At some point I think I probably need to put together a post that just contains the first lines of anecdotes that make people pull the "you just said what" face when they suddenly become relevant. Like "the time I taught the daughters of an oil sheikh how to ride", or "the time I broke a hammock with an opera singer", etc etc etc.)
Anyway, the point is, I have to a few of you now mentioned The Time I Found A Meteorite Under My Desk.
It is quite a nice meteorite. It is about the age of the solar system, i.e. about 4.6 billion years. You can tell this by looking at it.
This is a photograph of my bookshelf at work, somewhat out of date, but nonetheless featuring several of the major textbooks. (I can tell I'm turning into a grown-up because I actually have my own copies of a pile of texts.) Also: a small silver circle (handlens) and a yellow perspex block containing an oddly-shaped lump of metal.
Close-up of the meteorite.
Not excellent images by any means, but what they do show is that this lump of rock has beautifully developed Widmanstätten patterns. What you can't see is the black crust around the edge of the meteorite, acquired on entering the atmosphere.
Entertainingly, this lump of four and a half billion years old rock does not, in point of fact, have any identifying information on it at all. It damn well ought to at least have a sample number on it - it probably came from a museum collection before it found its way down the back of my desk - but it doesn't.
So there we go.
Anyway, the point is, I have to a few of you now mentioned The Time I Found A Meteorite Under My Desk.
It is quite a nice meteorite. It is about the age of the solar system, i.e. about 4.6 billion years. You can tell this by looking at it.
This is a photograph of my bookshelf at work, somewhat out of date, but nonetheless featuring several of the major textbooks. (I can tell I'm turning into a grown-up because I actually have my own copies of a pile of texts.) Also: a small silver circle (handlens) and a yellow perspex block containing an oddly-shaped lump of metal.
Close-up of the meteorite.
Not excellent images by any means, but what they do show is that this lump of rock has beautifully developed Widmanstätten patterns. What you can't see is the black crust around the edge of the meteorite, acquired on entering the atmosphere.
Entertainingly, this lump of four and a half billion years old rock does not, in point of fact, have any identifying information on it at all. It damn well ought to at least have a sample number on it - it probably came from a museum collection before it found its way down the back of my desk - but it doesn't.
So there we go.