Anyone visiting Reno, Nevada, in the US; should stop by the Fleischmann Planetarium. Located on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno; the planetarium is open to the public. Besides the planetarium itself, they have an extensive display of exhibits (free with the price of admission), including an excellent collection of meteorites.
The most impressive of these is a one ton hunk of metal known as the Quinn Canyon meteorite, which originally fell in Nevada in 1908. You can see a picture of it below (at bottom). Actually, this is only half of the original meteorite (the big half); the other piece is in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian Museum. The original meteorite was cut in half (no easy feat) to show it’s impressive Widmanstatten lines, or patterns -a crystalline structure visible in the metal of various iron meteorites. These structures take millions of years to form.
Besides the Quinn Canyon, there is a collection of many kinds of smaller meteorites, including several more from Nevada -as well as another iron meteorite which can be handled by the public.
Fleischmann Planetarium’s website is at: http://planetarium.unr.nevada.edu/
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…and where have we “seen” that crystalline pattern in stainless steal before
~at the core of my Earth
=and what does that tell of how this gem was formed (in the belly of a supernova) !