Meteorites

Meteorites have been falling to Earth for literally hundreds of millions of years—and continue to land here today. Our Meteorites exhibition features rare and fascinating meteorites, from fossil meteorites to a meteorite on Mars.  Read more about Four Fascinating Meteorites That Provide Clues to Understanding Our Solar System

On Monday, February 6, 2017, around 1:30am local time, many inhabitants of the Midwest saw a bright fireball shooting across the night sky. Some even heard a sonic boom. The Field Museum's Invertebrate Collections Manager Paul Mayer woke up from the sonic boom: "I was staying in Fredonia, Wisconsin and was woken up by a large boom that shook the whole house. It sounded like thunder and I thought maybe it was a train hitting something. I got up and looked out the window, but did not see anything. Read more about Bright Fireball Over the Midwest

Four hundred and sixty-six million years ago, there was a giant collision in outer space. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. But what kinds of meteorites were making their way to Earth before that collision? In a new study in Nature Astronomy, Field Museum scientists have tackled that question by creating the first reconstruction of the distribution of meteorite types before the collision. Read more about Today’s rare meteorites were once common

Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet on August 24, 2006. While many grieved the loss of the ninth planet, we’re now learning more than ever about this ball of ice and its faraway neighborhood at the edge of the solar system. So, what ended Pluto’s run as a planet? The International Astronomical Union, or IAU, defines a planet by three qualities: 1. Orbits the Sun 2. Big enough for gravity to shape it into a sphere (which is called “hydrostatic equilibrium”) Read more about Learning from Pluto as a Dwarf Planet

The residents of a Chicago suburb were jolted awake just before midnight on March 26, 2003—by meteorites falling through their roofs and windows. The Park Forest meteorite, named for the area at the center of the shower, fell in one of the most heavily populated areas to see meteorites in recent history. Read more about A Breakup with Lasting Impact: Meteorites from a 470-Million-Year-Old Split

They are the “Mona Lisas” of meteorites – out of over 50,000 known meteorites, only 101 of them are fossilized, and four of them will be on display at The Field Museum. Read more about Fossil Meteorites Arrive at The Field Museum