Gibeon Meteorite - Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, UK
N 51° 28.619 W 000° 00.032
30U E 708284 N 5707136
This piece of the Gibeon meteorite, that crashed to Earth in Namibia, is on display in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park. It is an exhibit that can be touched. Entrance is free.
Waymark Code: WMWP57
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/25/2017
Views: 1
The brass plaque, next to the exhibit, is inscribed:
This is part of the Gibeon meteorite that is believed to have hit the Earth in prehistoric times. Gibeon is an iron and nickel meteorite and was found as hundreds of fragments in Namibia, Africa. The iron and nickel form intricate patterns inside the meteorite. These patterns tell us that the metals cooled slowly over thousands of years as the meteorite travelled through space.
The Royal Museums Greenwich website also tells us:
Would you like to touch something that is as old as the Earth and the Sun itself? Come to the Astronomy Centre at the Royal Observatory.
Our meteorite is a large hunk of mostly iron with just under 10% of nickel. It was formed around the same time as our Sun and the Earth and after a leisurely tour of the Solar System as the centre of an asteroid, it came crashing down into southern Africa as the Gibeon Meteorite.
The Nama people used smaller bits of the meteorite for tools and countless chunks remained scattered over a large area. In 1836 Englishman J. E. Alexander collected samples and sent them to London. John Herschel confirmed they were indeed not of this planet.
We’ve sliced away one side of the meteorite so that you can see what it looks like inside and it has this beautiful pattern of metal crystals inside - those crystals only form if the metal has cooled over millions of years, just a few degrees every million years.
This remarkable object is in the Royal Observatory in the Astronomy Centre - entry is free.