Gibeon meteorite, etched slice. University of New Mexico, Institute of Meteoritics. Widmanstätten-Figuren (NASA). Iron meteorites probably formed in the cores of asteroids, and were released when the asteroids were shattered by impacts. Inside, many iron meteorites are made of criss-crossing intergrown crystals of two iron-nickel minerals. The two types of crystals in this sample are several centimeters wide. The sizes and shapes of the crystals suggest that they cooled down so slowly, a few degrees each million years, that they must have been inside large asteroids.
El lloc web de la NASA disposa d'un gran nombre d'imatges de l'Agència Espacial Russa, o soviètica, i d'altres agències no nord-americanes. Aquestes imatges no són necessàriament en el domini públic.
*'''Description:''' Widmanstätten-Figuren (NASA) :Iron meteorites are made almost entirely of iron metal with some nickel. As with stony meteorites, iron meteorites also have fusion crusts and show distinct molten metal shapes and flow markings, like tho
Aquest fitxer conté informació addicional, probablement afegida per la càmera digital o l'escàner utilitzat per a crear-lo o digitalitzar-lo. Si s'ha modificat posteriorment, alguns detalls poden no reflectir les dades reals del fitxer modificat.