Astronomy

46 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2018

The Murchison Meteorite is one of the favorites
of the staff at the Field Museum. More than
200 pounds of it fell to Earth on September 28,
1969, in Australia. It’s part of a group known
as carbonaceous chondrites. Murchison is
among the most primitive of meteorites, and it
contains complex organic compounds, such as
amino acids. DAVID J. EICHER

Jim Holstein is the Field Museum’s collections

manager of physical geology, and the person

in charge of the meteorite collection. Here,

he holds a large piece of the Allende Meteorite.

Like Murchison, it fell in 1969 (on February 8,

in the Mexican state of Chihuahua). Allende is

the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found.

DAVID J. EICHER

This cut and polished iron is the first meteorite

cataloged in the Field Museum’s collection.

Designated ME–1, it is also the facility’s oldest

meteorite. It fell in Elbogen (now known as

Loket) in the Czech Republic around 1400. The

museum acquired this and 300 other specimens

after the World’s Columbian Exposition, which

took place in Chicago in 1893. DAVID J. EICHER