THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS METEORITE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION LAB

Meteorites are rocks from outer space that land on Earth. A range of meteorites exist, derived from the iron cores, rocky mantles crust and regolith of differentiated asteroids, to the chondrites, the condensed mist of the gaseous nebula from which our solar system originated. Most meteorites come from the Asteroid Belt, a few come from Mars and the Moon. Students are fascinated by meteorites and what these tell us about our Solar System, but have few opportunities to learn about them in a “hands-on” lab setting. In 2020, retiring professor Asish Basu of UT Arlington gave his collection of meteorites to the UTD Dept of Geosciences, and we are using these as a nucleus to establish a new kind of “hands-on” meteorite museum with the primary goal of teaching students about these. Our collection contains 72 well documented meteorite samples: 53 undifferentiated meteorites (52 ordinary chondrites, and 1 carbonaceous chondrite); 19 differentiated meteorites (14 iron, 3 mesosiderite, and 2 pallasites), a few thin sections, and a few tektites. A new undergraduate non-majors class is in development - Comets Love Meteorites, a play on our university mascot the “UTD Comets” and our new lab. The goal of the lab is to amaze and educate especially UTD students, but also at all levels of the community as well. An undergraduate student developed social media presence is in progress, as well as a web site. We have brochures available, please visit the UTD Geosciences Booth and take a few to distribute to friends and colleagues. Please join our Facebook group “Rocks from Space”.