Krasnojarsk (meteorite)

The meteorite Krasnoyarsk was the first reported discovery of a meteorite in Russia. He is assigned to the group of pallasite.

In 1772, the German explorer Peter Simon Pallas heard on his visit to Russia expedition by a massive iron body ( around 145 km south of the city of Krasnoyarsk ) had fallen from the sky according to the narratives of living there Tatars in 1749 when Siberian village Ubeisk. Pallas examined and sampled the object in place. Outside it was surrounded by a black crust, the interior consisted of a peculiar mixture of olivine crystals embedded in a mass of iron. Such had never been observed.

Unwittingly, Pallas had discovered on his journey not only a particularly large and interesting meteorite, he also performed in the following years of research at the archaeological material some important contribution to the then still young and controversial meteorite research. Nevertheless, as the " Pallas- iron " received in the historical literature Fund was not until many years later clearly recognized as a meteorite and thus as extraterrestrial matter and classified. The physicist Ernst F. F. Chladni he served at the end of the 18th century to support its progressive observations on meteors, fireballs and unusual rock finds its origin, he, unlike many other of his contemporaries, not on earth or in the atmosphere, but in the apogee space was looking for.

" Krasnoyarsk " provides in addition represents the first known member of a new subgroup of the stone -iron meteorites, which are named after their discoverer " pallasite ". At this meteorite material, typical of many iron and stone -iron meteorites identifying the " Widmanstättenschen figures" already was early explored for the first time ( characteristic etching pattern on polished sections by treatment with dilute nitric acid). The total mass of the block was originally around 700 kilograms numerous separated for research and collection purposes fragments are preserved distributed worldwide in enormous meteorite collections. The remaining bulk of the meteorite (about 515 kg ) is currently pending in the collections of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.