AN GORGEOUS AND UNUSUAL METEO✱RITE SLICEꦑ STUDIED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The Itqiy meteorite is an enstatite, a highly unusual type of chondrite that has made classification extremely difficult. While Itqiy is classified as an enstatite chondrite, this slice of🌸 Itqiy looks both achondritic and like a stony-iron, with approximately three quarters of the slice being silicates, and the rest being iron-ni🅷ckel alloy. The texture and look of Itqiy is extremely unique, and because it has proved so anomalous, it will continue to be an important meteorite for scientists to study. This exact piece has been used by Dr. Denton Ebel of the American Museum of Natural History to study the enstatite meteorites.

As Itqiy's metallic content is present as solid metal rather than bound to oxygen, researchers have proposed 🐻that Itqiy formed in a low-oxygen environment closer to the inner edge of the solar system, perhaps around Mercury or Venus. Later, it would have transited to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, from whence it was hit into an Earth-crossing orbit and fell to💫 our planet.

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