This week I visited the UCLA Meteorite Collection at UCLA perfectly
tying in our discussion of space. The UCLA collection is the largest in the
West Coast containing almost three thousand samples. One particular piece came
from the Seymchan meteorite that landed in Russia in 1967. The piece captured my
attention immediately due to its uniqueness. It was spotted due to being
composed of both silicate mineral and metallic iron nickel. The piece was a
natural piece of art.
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| Seymchan meteorite |
Another piece that was displayed in the middle of the room was
a 357-pound individual iron meteorite (shown below). This is UCLA’s oldest meteorite dating
back to 1934. The Meteorite gallery combined many aspects of our class. The
first and most obvious is the study of space that has historical, artistic, and
economical influence as mentioned in lecture. The gallery incorporates science,
art, and technology beautifully. The science behind the meteorites is displayed
in a creative manner similar to an artistic museum. In addition, each piece from
the meteorite contains a small barcode under it, that can be easily scanned by
a phone providing immediate information about it.
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| Oldest Meteorite Present in the Gallery |
The importance of such a gallery ties with our very first discussion
of two cultures. Prior to this course, I never stepped foot in the Meteorite gallery.
Such a fantastic display was easily accessible but completely ignored. This is
one of the most important things that I was able to take away from my visit to
the gallery as well as this course. Diversifying your scope of knowledge and
expertise is not as inaccessible as we might think. We limit our thinking by
categorizing ourselves into one and only one field. As we discussed the topic
of Space this week, most of the example provided were billion-dollar projects
by large national companies. How can students begin interacting with space and
not simply go through the history of space projects? The Meteorite Collection
essentially brings space to the students allowing for access to incredible knowledge.
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| Small collection of chondritic meteorites |
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| Selfie at Gallery |
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