3) Irons and stony irons are fragments of the cores of fully-formed small planets that were disrupted during collisions billions of years ago. As the first planets grew in size, heavy elements such as nickel and iron sank to their centers to form metallic cores, like that of the Earth.
Generally speaking, meteorites are named after the place where they fell or were found. That’s why the iron meteorite that made the Arizona Meteor Crater is called Canyon Diablo and that which exploded over Russia in 1947 is known as Sikhote-Alin.
A 1.7kg individual meteorite from the Sikhote Alin meteorite shower (coasrsest octahedrite, class IIAB). This specimen is about 12cm wide. Sikhote Alin meteorite shower fell on 1947 February 12 in the dense forest of eastern Siberia, and over 23 tons of meteoritic material has been recovered. (H. Raab /