NWA 8171 Meteorite Thin Section

A first hand look at the basaltic crust of Mars, this thin section specimen of the NWA 8171 meteorite (aka Black Beauty) provides an exquisite and unforgettable glimpse back to a time when Mars had oceans of water on its surface. More information from Space Jewels.

Information from Meteorite Studies

This thin section has been photographed with all three of my cameras. You can directly compare the results from the three versions.

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Version 3 – Nikon D810

NWA 8171 Meteorite Thin Section

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Version 2 – Tucsen C30 3MP sCMOS

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NWA 8171 Meteorite Thin Section

Version 1 – A3550UPA 5MP CCD

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4x/0.25, A35140U CCD 14MP, named fall, ordinary chondrite, polarized, scope2, zerene stacker

Limerick Meteorite Thin Section

Thin section specimen of the Limerick Meteorite in cross polarized light. The meteor was observed on September 10, 1813 and the meteorite recovered shortly after the event. Limerick is classed as a type 5 high iron ordinary chondrite.

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A35140U CCD 14MP, chondrite, northwest africa, polarized, scope2

NWA 5205 Meteorite Thin Section

NWA 5205 provides a unique glimpse at conditions present in the early solar nebula. If you look closely at the chondrules you can see many deformed ones. Here is a link to an informative paper written by Knut Metzler about NWA 5205. This paper investigates these deformed chondrules, along with other unique properties, and suggests that rapid cooling occurred while the chondrules were in the process of accretion.

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