Album 6 - Cometary Fragments
The outer portion of the above rock fragment (pic 1) shows melting while inside (pic 2) shows colors of greenish and
reddish glassy matrix. Upper right (pic 3), above center to left (pic 4) and upper left (pic 5) attempt to show suspended
gold color flecks believe to be sulphides. Objects shown on the upper right of pic 4 could be ferrimagnetic pyrrhotite.
Plagioclase Twinning captured from another fragment (pic 6). Photos (7 & 8) of another rock fragment showing what
appears to be secondary melt crust. There is an abundance of this fragment.

















This piece of high-metal content fragment shows a mix of glassy mineral (appears as bright streaks in the photos of both the front and reverse sides -
pics 1 & 2) and carbon chips (pic 3 close-up at bottom left). Filed section fragment shown in pic 1 along with another high-metal fragment (pics 6 &
7). The inside of the rust covered metal fragment showing bronze to golden yellow color - Osbornite. This mineral was acquired by NASA's Stardust
mission during its collection of Comet Wild 2 dust (pic 8).
The outer portion of the above rock fragment (pics 1 and 3) shows matted crust with various light-brown spots.
Close-ups of the surface (pics 2 and 4).
Filed rock fragment with rust, melted minerals, what maybe remnant of fusion crust (black area), fractured vein on side and silver color metal flecks.
Very difficult to remove the outer portion with a hand-held diamond file as instead of the rock being filed, the particles from the file are removed.
This group of rock fragments, although appear different from the others above, show what maybe secondary fusion crust and silver color metal flecks.
Possible remnants of graphite shown on fragment in pic 2. Effort made to file fragment in pic 3 without success.
This multicolor fragment with grayish-blue, green and yellow minerals (pics 1 and 2) is seen on the rock fragment in
pic 3. These minerals appear to be partially melted serpentine and is seen on another fragment with numerous
impact fracture veins (pic 4).
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on its research of Comet Wild 2, a comet is an
aggregate composed of different minerals one would not find in an area composed purely of
Sedimentary rock types. [http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news110.html]
"Science Related" not "Scientifically Related"
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Highly magnetic vesicular, mixture of glass and metal believe to be portions of the comet's crust. A high metal content fragment is seen on the far
right (photo 2). The aggregate of colors showing on the fragments may be indicative of the pieces being subjected to very high temperature.
Close-up on broken fragments showing glass and vesicles (photo 4). Note that the vesicles are round!
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Above is an aggregate of different colorful, magnetic igneous rocks believed to be portions of a comet or asteroid that hit North America on its northeast
side shortly after the withdrawal of the late Wisconsinan Glacier. The bulk of the rocks gathered are shown in the Cometary Fragments section.
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