Question: what are meteorites made from?

Natasha Stephen answered on 18 Jun 2014:

There are different types of meteorites and they are made of different things!

The most common type of meteorites are “chondrites” and these are rocky meteorites that are made up of fragments of asteroids, minerals and leftover bits and pieces from the start of our solar system’s formation billions of years ago. These are quite common meteorites and can be found in lots of places; the big explosion over Russia last year was due to a chondrite meteorite!

There are other meteorites known as “iron meteorites” that are made up of, as their name would suggest, iron metal as well as some nickel too. These meteorites are much rarer than the chondrite meteorites and are very heavy due to being solid metal; you can easily tell the difference between an iron meteorite and a chondrite meteorite!

There is another group of meteorites that are made up of both rocky parts like the chondrites, with large minerals in them, and iron-nickel metals like the iron meteorites. These meteorites, known as pallasites, are very pretty!