• Question: Do you think we could find any materials in meteorites that we could use in everyday life?

    Asked by zubicuswordflash to Roy on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Roy Adkin

      Roy Adkin answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hello there,
      Good question…
      The simple answer is I don’t know. Most of the minerals and metals are already on Earth a are most of the organic compounds (although there are some rare ones and a few that are only found in space…but those are not very good for us) are already here too. Even if there were uses we certainly couldn’t extract any useful amount as there is only a tiny amount in the stones and there aren’t that many stones…so doubly difficult!
      Google ‘Pallisites’ and you will find that in these type of meteorites there are gem stone quality olivine minerals that can be cut and polished…they are found on Earth and are called Peridote.
      I hoe that amswers your question 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: Rowena

    Rowena commented on :

    There’s a lot of iron in meteorites. Mossbauer spectroscopy of meteorites is used to work out where they came from, how they formed and how long they have been on earth. The minerals are therefore “used” to understand meteorite formation, but they’re not extracted and made into frying pans as far as I know.