Moon & Meteorites

Different Directions has a growing, quality collection of meteorites, and we use the collection to teach key facets of the Earth/Moon system, as well as provide a deeper understanding of some of Earth's great catastrophes.

As part of the NASA educational sample disk program, we also borrow sample disks from time to time. The NASA lunar samples are currently the only moon rocks that are available for scientific study and classroom examination.

Lunar samples are rocks and soils collected from the Moon and returned by Apollo astronauts and unmanned Soviet Luna missions. Meteorites are special rocks, mostly from asteroids, which arrived at Earth unaided by spacecraft and survived the fiery entry through the atmosphere.

The Moon samples and Meteorites are part of our classroom and community presentations, and are also a standalone teaching series.

Join us in the adventures.

From our Blog

Double meteorite strike ’caused dinosaur extinction’

“To the Sounds of Saturn”

About Mars

Stars reveal carbon ’spaceballs’

Upward-looking camera systems yield information about meteoric events

Here's a video program from the London Natural History Museum. The resident mineralogist is Caroline Smith, and she presents information about meteorites and how our solar system has formed.

Watch the video

Note: To watch video, you'll need to have Windows Media Player or QuickTime installed on your computer.

Olivine
(Magnesium Iron Silicate)

Because I've stumbled across this mineral, or series of minerals, in meteorites and volcanic bombs, I've linked to a good explanation about the mineral.

What's interesting is that olivine is extremely abundant within the earth, just not seen on the Earth's surface or crust.

http://www.go2add.com/paleo/olivine_ee.php

Paleo Fun