I was looking for some books at Kinokuniya when some precious stones in a few display cabinets caught my attention. I was mesmerized by how colourful they looked when something else in another cabinet stopped me dead in my tracks.
Meteorite fragments! They were selling meteorite fragments!
There were many of them on display and all of them are for sale. I saw one the size of my fist going for over $8000!
Not sure of what I was getting or if they were even genuine, I Googled for more information on the different meteorite fragments. The one that I got was an ordinary chondrite, which is a nonmetallic material commonly found in most, if not all meteoroids. The ones containing metals were more expensive because of their rarity.
After that, I went to a meteoritical database and keyed in the name of the fragment to check on its history. It was registered in the database and this fragment was once part of a larger 2-ton meteorite. Impressive!
Next, I checked the company, Tokyo Science, to see what other stuff they were selling. They are a Japanese distributor for these space rocks, precious stones, and animal fossils. Very interesting...
One lady was beside me admiring precious stones and she felt puzzled about why I had bought what looked like an ordinary rock to her. She asked me about the rock and I spent some time explaining to her in mandarin what it actually was. But she was still kind of unimpressed. Haha. I guess everyone sees different values when it comes to certain things in life.
I felt so happy when the counter staff came to unlock the display cabinet and placed the little box containing the meteorite fragment in my hand. It cost me nearly $20. I may consider to buy another one soon. The next one is going to be a fragment that has metallic elements in it. It's slightly more expensive and smaller in size than the ordinary chondrite. I will update this blog once I get it.
*Update
Edit: 11/5/15
Got another meteorite yesterday at Kinokuniya. This one is different though, this is an octahedrite fragment- it is a form of iron meteorite with some element of nickle in it.
I very much wanted to know the history of this space rock, but unlike the previous meteorite fragment, NWA 869, there was no abbreviation on this meteorite that I could use to find any information in The Meteoritical Society's database, and I can't read the Chinese characters on the display box except for the characters that said "China".
My cousin helped me to decode the Chinese characters and we did a bit of investigation on the meteorite fragment. What we found was astonishing!
What's interesting about it is not its found year, but rather, its fell year, dated in 1516! The meteor fell in the county of Nantan, state of Guanxi, China, during the Ming Dynasty. Fragments of the meteorite were only found in 1958. I am still wondering how they knew it was from 1516?
Do you know what was going on in the year 1516? Leonardo da Vinci was still around doing his thing! Mary I Tudor a.k.a Bloody Mary was born in that year. Wow!
A quick search online tells me that this was the same meteor. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantan_meteorite
At least there's some details of my purchase now. I went to The Meteoritical Society's website and keyed in "Nantan", the search result told me the type and make of the meteorite but not the history behind it. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=16906
Nonetheless, I am quite happy with what I have bought. I think this is going to be the last piece that I am collecting - it's an expensive hobby.
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