Calvin News

A week after March Madness concludes, Meteorite Madness commences on the campus of Calvin University. On April 15, Calvin is inviting the public out to its Bruce Dice Mineralogical Museum to see rare meteorites from Mars, the Moon, and the Asteroid Belt.

“In 2017, we had a 5-gram piece of the moon on display here,” said Kent Ratajeski, the director of the museum. “This is a 50-gram piece.”

Ratajeski, who joined Calvin in 2023, says that what makes this specimen impressive is not only its size, but its origin.

A Rare Experience

“This comes from the lunar highlands. It wasn’t harvested by astronauts, it came here naturally,” said Ratajeski. “There’s a very small number of meteorites that have come that way.”

In addition to having a meteorite of the Moon that is ten times the size of the one previously displayed on campus, the university also has a chunk of Mars.

“This was found just last year in North Africa, and this one is cool because we haven’t sent astronauts to Mars. So, you might ask, how do we know this is from Mars? Well, there are geochemical fingerprints of Mars in terms of oxygen isotopes and what not, but also some of the Martian meteorites have little pockets of Martian air trapped in them,” said Ratajeski. “And we have sent landers and rovers to Mars which have measured the composition of Martian air, and this matches perfectly.”

Having these kinds of meteorites from the Moon and Mars on display in a single location is quite unique," said Ratajeski considering the quantity of each out there.

“In terms of classified meteorites on Earth, we have as much of the moon on Earth as a crocodile. So, think about how big a crocodile is and that’s how much moon we’ve found on the Earth. So, this chunk is one slice of one of those pieces making up that crocodile,” said Ratajeski. “As far as Mars, we have about an alligator’s worth.”

And There's More

While the meteorites from the Moon and Mars are among the most unique ones that will be on display at Calvin, Ratejeski says they are just two of the 16 meteorites from 11 countries in its collection.

Among the new arrivals to the Dice Museum are a piece of the second-largest asteroid (4-Vesta), an iron meteorite from Sweden, a 2.5 kilogram stony meteorite showing excellent surface features formed during atmospheric entry, an "oriented" stony meteorite showing the classic aerodynamic shape (shield-like) also formed during atmospheric entry, and a stony-iron meteorite from Chile (this one contains "space gems" of the mineral olivine embedded in iron.)
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A Hidden Gem

While Ratajeski says the meteorites on display beginning on April 15 hold special significance, he’s hoping those who come out to see these specimens will be in awe of the entire collection of specimens.

“We have a beautiful collection of more than 400 specimens of rocks, minerals, fossils, and meteorites from all over the world,” said Ratajeski. “We are excited that this event on April 15 will open the door for us to showcase the hidden gem that is the Dice Mineralogical Museum.”

Note: A full list of events are included in the sidebar of this story and here.