WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 47WE WERE, OF COURSE, blown away by Adler’s
incredible historical artifacts. When Michael and I
finished, we crossed a short distance to another great
institution, the Field Museum.
There we were met by Angelica Lasala and
Brianna Peoples, and joined by Philipp Heck, the
curator of the museum’s meteorites. In the hidden
hallways of the Field Museum, up in the research
labs and libraries of the second f loor, we were treated
to a long discussion with Philipp about the meteorite
collection — one of the finest around — and the
ongoing research happening there. Ever since its
commencement in 1893, the collection has grown
every year and still receives annual donations from
well-placed scientists and collectors.
Philipp showed us a large specimen of the
Murchison Meteorite, famous for containing amino
acids, some of the compounds necessary for life. He
showed us a jar filled with submillimetric diamonds
— stardust — extracted from primitive meteorites.
He also showed us a beautiful slice of Allende, a
wonderful primitive meteorite that fell to Earth in
1969 with large chondrules and calcium-aluminum
inclusions. These blobs of material that cooled and
solidified in meteorites are older than Earth. Philipp
then showed us one of his primary tools used for
analyzing meteorites, his Raman spectroscopy setup.
Philipp’s colleague Jim Holstein, curator of the
meteorite “vault,” then took us into the secret depths
of the collection. From numerous drawers (the col-
lection holds more than 12,000 pieces), he picked out
an impressive array of famous and rare stones from
space for us to examine. There were drawers full of
Allende! We saw the very first meteorite in the Field
collection, a cut (and engraved!) piece of Elbogen,
which fell in 1400 in what is now the Czech
Republic. We saw an enormous chunk of the Santa
Rosa de Viterbo meteorite found in Colombia in- Jim then showed us huge lunar meteorites
found in Northwest Africa. What a treat!
We then walked through one of the Field
Museum’s highlights, the Grainger Hall of Gems.
Minerals are the center of planetary geology —
they’re the way the universe assembles atoms into
rocky bodies like Earth. The gallery showed an
incredible array of minerals, and we can imagine
that many other planets would also have similar
mineral specimens. We saw great examples of dia-
monds, gold, topaz, the tourmaline group, varieties
of quartz, rubies, emeralds, and more.
Cool
meteorite
science
THE FIELD
MUSEUMWhen you visit the Field Museum, don’t leave without spending time in the Grainger Hall
of Gems. In this exhibition, you’ll see exquisite, rare jewels and gold objects from around
the world, as well as never-before-seen creations from top designers. DAVID J. EICHER
To p: We we r e
backstage at the
Field Museum
specifically for
meteorites. Philipp
Heck gave us a great
tour of some special
meteorites and the
equipment he uses
to analyze them.
In this photo, he
demonstrates the
museum’s Raman
Spectroscopy
System. MICHAEL E. BAKICHLeft: The Field
Museum of Natural
History in Chicago
is one of the largest
such facilities in the
world. It opened at
its present location
on May 2, 1921.
COURTESY OF THE FIELD
MUSEUM