Hi Jeffrey,
Well, I looked it up in the book: “Reheating of the structure to
900 to 1000C for a short time, however, can destroy it.” So you
could solder meteorite, but one should be careful.
The structure (Widmannstaetten pattern) is built up by lamellae
of kamacite (nickel-poor iron-nickel-alloy), which form the
broad bands, and taenite nickel-rich alloy), which separate the
kamacite bands. There is a third element, plessite, which is a
fine intergrowth of both, and fills the wedges between the
lamellae. These lamellae are in fact cross-sections of plates of
kamacite sheathed by thin films of taenite, that are arranged
parallel to the 4 surface pairs of an octahedron (double pyramid
of 8 equilateral triangles). Hence, the pattern of the bands
depends on how you cut the meteorite: cut parallel to the
surface of the octahedrite or parallel to an edge of the girdle
and at right angles to the girdle plane, you get a figure where
the lamellae cross at 60 degree angles. Cutting parallel to the
girdle plane of the octahedron, they cross at right angles.
Random cut produces - composite angles. There are other types of
iron meteorites than octahedrites, namely hexahedrites with less
than 6% nickle - only kamacite, which show very fine, parallel,
so called Neumann lines (cross sections of twin lamellae, formed
because of mechanical stress), and ataxites,which show no
pattern.
Books on meteorites:
Meteorites, Messengers from Space, by F. Heide and F. Wlotzka, Springer-Verlag,
Berlin Heidelberg New York, ISBN3-540-58105-7, 1995
Handbook of Iron Meteorites. Their History, Distribution, Composition and
Structure, by VF Buchwald, 3 vols., University of California Press, Berkeley,
1975
Meteorites and Their Parent Planets, by HY McSween, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1986
I also started a web search and found a site where meteorites are sold, and
furthe is given: www.meteorite.com
Another interesting site is www.meteoritecentral.com
Markus
