{"dataset":{"slug":"meteorite-classes","title":"Meteorite Classes","description":"The classes and groups of meteorites — chondrites, HED, martian, lunar, pallasites, and more.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":12,"sources":["nasa"]},"entities":[{"id":"meteorite_class:achondrite","name":"Achondrites","type":"meteorite_class","domain":"science","description":"Stony meteorites from bodies that melted and differentiated — including basalts from the asteroid Vesta and rocks blasted off Mars and the Moon.","entryPath":"/meteorites/class/achondrite"},{"id":"meteorite_group:carbonaceous-chondrite","name":"Carbonaceous Chondrites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"Dark, primitive chondrites carrying carbon, water-bearing minerals, and complex organics — the closest samples we have to the raw ingredients of the Solar System, and to what asteroids like Bennu and Ryugu are made of.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/carbonaceous-chondrite"},{"id":"meteorite_class:chondrite","name":"Chondrites","type":"meteorite_class","domain":"science","description":"The most common meteorites: primitive, undifferentiated stony rocks that preserve material from the birth of the Solar System, subdivided into carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite groups.","entryPath":"/meteorites/class/chondrite"},{"id":"meteorite_group:enstatite-chondrite","name":"Enstatite Chondrites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"Rare, chemically reduced chondrites that formed in the innermost, oxygen-starved region of the solar nebula — a possible source of much of Earth's own building material.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/enstatite-chondrite"},{"id":"meteorite_group:hed","name":"HED Meteorites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"The howardite–eucrite–diogenite clan of basaltic achondrites, whose spectra match the asteroid Vesta so closely that they are considered pieces of its crust, delivered to Earth after impacts.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/hed"},{"id":"meteorite_class:iron","name":"Iron Meteorites","type":"meteorite_class","domain":"science","description":"Dense meteorites of nickel-iron alloy, thought to be fragments of the metallic cores of asteroids that were shattered by collisions — the source of the largest meteorites found on Earth.","entryPath":"/meteorites/class/iron"},{"id":"meteorite_group:lunar","name":"Lunar Meteorites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"Pieces of the Moon flung to Earth by impacts, whose mineralogy matches the samples returned by the Apollo and Luna missions — a free supply of lunar rock from unsampled regions.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/lunar"},{"id":"meteorite_group:martian","name":"Martian Meteorites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"Rocks ejected from Mars by large impacts and later swept up by Earth — identified by trapped gases matching the composition measured in the Martian atmosphere by landers.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/martian"},{"id":"meteorite_group:mesosiderite","name":"Mesosiderites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"Chaotic stony-iron breccias mixing crustal silicates with metallic core material — thought to record the catastrophic disruption and re-assembly of a differentiated asteroid.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/mesosiderite"},{"id":"meteorite_group:ordinary-chondrite","name":"Ordinary Chondrites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"By far the most common meteorites to fall, these stony chondrites come from ordinary silicate asteroids in the inner belt.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/ordinary-chondrite"},{"id":"meteorite_group:pallasite","name":"Pallasites","type":"meteorite_group","domain":"science","description":"The most striking meteorites, in which gem-quality green olivine crystals are suspended in a lattice of nickel-iron — probably formed at the core–mantle boundary of a shattered asteroid.","entryPath":"/meteorites/group/pallasite"},{"id":"meteorite_class:stony-iron","name":"Stony-Iron Meteorites","type":"meteorite_class","domain":"science","description":"Rare meteorites blending rock and metal in roughly equal measure — the pallasites (olivine in metal) and mesosiderites (breccias of metal and silicate).","entryPath":"/meteorites/class/stony-iron"}]}