Event 2: Meteorite Gallery

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Display of asteroids and meteorites
For the second event, I went to the Meteorite Gallery in the Geology building. I have visited the gallery before when I took an Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences so it was familiar to me. The idea of space has always fascinated me so seeing things from beyond our atmosphere was pretty cool. Space is vast and bigger than we can even imagine. Putting life into perspective, humans are smaller than a speck of dust in this entire galaxy.


When you walk into the gallery, the first thing that you will notice are two meteorites in the middle of the room. The table with the lone meteorite is the oldest iron meteorite that UCLA has been gifted and it is from 1934. Just as it looks, the meteorite feels strong and indestructible. It is mind-blowing that such rock has come from outer space and it leaves you wondering whether it would be likely that you can get hit by this robust object. The sign next to the meteorite says that it is very unlikely that someone will get hit by a meteorite because it has never happened before and we have advanced technology that will warn us ahead of time if such thing ever enters our atmosphere.
Display case of meteorwrongs

Around the room, there are shelves of different types of asteroids and meteorites that can be found in space. Iron and stone meteorites are displayed, as well as the various types of rocks in space. My favorite part of the gallery is the section where they display the rocks that people suspected to be meteorites. Meteorites are actually hard to come across, but the gallery receives a ton of rocks that people mistake to be a meteorite. Due to the influx of false meteorites, the gallery has a dedicated section of meteorwrongs, where they showcase the most interesting rocks they come across that aren't meteorites. It's amusing, but it can also serve to show the rarity of meteorites and the existence of different types of rocks.

I would recommend this gallery to my classmates because seeing what is beyond our planet is an interesting learning experience. The idea of space is hard to wrap your head around, but seeing the contents of it can bring the ideas closer together.

Layout of the room


The two meteorites in the center of the room
Another display shelf


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