Field Museum
One of the world's largest meteorite collections, with major holdings of Murchison and the 2003 Park Forest fall.
Key facts
- Where
- Chicago, United States
- Kind
- Museum
- Visiting
- Public galleries
The Field Museum's Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies looks after one of the largest meteorite collections in the world, with specimens from several thousand meteorites.
It holds a large share of the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite, which fell in Australia in 1969 and carries amino acids and other organic compounds made in space. In 2020 a team led by the Field Museum reported that some dust grains in Murchison formed around other stars before the Sun existed, the oldest up to about 7 billion years ago, making them the oldest solid material known on Earth.
Closer to home, the museum collected many stones of the Park Forest meteorite, which fell on a suburb south of Chicago in March 2003, smashing through the roofs of several houses. It is one of the best-known falls on an American town.
Highlights
- Murchison presolar grains up to about 7 billion years old CM2
- Park Forest fell on a Chicago suburb in 2003 L5
Related pages
Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.