The most visually intriguing of meteorites are also the heaviest and the most recognizable. They come to us from large asteroids with molten cores that once orbited the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Extremely slow cooling of those cores, over millions of years, allowed nickel-iron alloys to crystallize into fantastic geometric structures knows as Widmanstätten Patterns. Much like snowflakes, the pattern of every iron meteorite is unique. Catastrophic collisions within the Asteroid Belt shattered

Stones constitute the largest group of meteorites. They originated in the outer crust of a planet or asteroid. Recently-fallen stone meteorites are covered by a thin, black rind known as fusion crust, which forms as the rock’s surface is burned during flight. Fusion crust is fragile and deteriorates easily, so stone meteorites that have been on the surface of our planet for a long time have a similar appearance to Earth rocks. Visible inside most stone meteorites are tiny, glassy, spheres known