Identifying the properties of a meteorite

[Ottahhh]

Hello!

My friends Dad recently decided to buy him a 'meteorite' off ebay. It is around the size of a tennis ball and when he first told me, I was a little bit sceptical to say the least, but never the less, I felt it would be interesting to see if it is so.

At first glance, I noticed instantly that it held resemblances to a stony-iron meteorite, I was pleasantly surprised! For a start, it has plenty of fusion crust, I very hopeful sign that it is indeed a meteorite. It also has a number of cracks around its crust but is by no means falling apart which suggests it has hit Earth at such force that it would of caused the aforementioned cracks. We then thought we would ask a science teacher at our school if we could borrow some magnets to test it for a magnetic field which would indicate iron. We managed to get some magnets and what do you know? Magnetic field. The odd thing is, the magnetic field isn't as strong as I expected it to be which leads me to think that the iron (if there is any) has been formed in compound with another element, but has still got a bit of its magnetic field left.

 

We don't exactly want to send it off to a university or anything to get tested by their professors as we actually want to do tests our self. Our school has given us permission to use a number of school supplies such as chemicals, microscopes and a bunch of other stuff so we can do so. The reason for posting here is that we want some suggestions as to what tests we could do to check for numerous things within the supposed meteorite such as nickel, silicon and anything else that would help us determine the contents of the 'meteorite'.

As I said, we have access to a lab, supplies and other tools to help us but we do not have all the fancy stuff that many professional identifiers have.

 

I do not have any pictures as of yet, but tomorrow (Friday) I will be able to take some, but we also want to start some basic testing tomorrow so all suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

Josh, 13.

[Spyman]

Do You Think You May Have Found a Meteorite?

Meteorites have several distinguishing characteristics that make them different from terrestrial (Earth) rocks. You can use this list to guide you through them. Usually, meteorites have all or most of these characteristics. Sometimes, detailed chemical analyses need to be done, but only on rocks that meet all these characteristics. Since detailed analyses take time and money, look for the easy characteristics first.

http://epswww.unm.edu/iom/ident/index.html