Meteorite with something inside?

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In summary, the conversation revolves around a person finding a rock that they believe to be a meteorite. They describe how it makes a rattling sound when shaken and ask for opinions on what it could be. Some possible explanations are offered, such as a geode or a rattlestone, and it is suggested that the rock be opened to determine its origin. It is also mentioned that the rock does not have the characteristics of a typical meteorite.
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onion
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I have this rock that I'm assuming, after research, is a meteorite. When you shake it slightly you can hear something knocking around on the inside. Whatever is inside, from the sound, doesn't seem to be hard like the outside. Any ideas what this could be? Curiosity is about to kill this cat!
 
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Welcome to PF.

Um, I'd be a little careful with that. Have you seen the movie Alien? I'm not kidding.

Paging @davenn
 
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  • #4
berkeman said:
Welcome to PF.

Um, I'd be a little careful with that. Have you seen the movie Alien? I'm not kidding.

Paging @davenn
😂😂😂 I feel it.... I tried posting a video but I'm not exactly sure how honestly
 
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onion said:
I tried posting a video but I'm not exactly sure how honestly
I think at PF you need to link to YouTube videos. I'm pretty sure there is no way to upload videos with "Attach Files" yet.
 
  • #8
berkeman said:
Paging @davenn
So anticipating some of the questions from Dave and @Baluncore is it magnetic? Can you say exactly where you found it (lat/long)? What kind of terrain did you find it in (desert, riverbed, forest, etc.)?
 
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Looking at the pictures shows a patina with polished corners. If it is a rock, it has either been handled by people for a long time, or has remained on the surface in a gibber stone desert. The lenticular notches suggest weathering of rock containing fossil shells.

Does it contain one rock or many particles of grit?
You have a "rattle stone", google it.

Rocks that rattle can be made from selectively weathered chemical concretions, geodes, or can be based on fossils in sandstone. Consider a bivalve shell, filled with sand and buried in sand. Groundwater, temperature and time, fossilise the shell and sand to a solid. The calcium carbonate from the shell, and silica from the sand, cement the near sandstone. When the rock comes to the surface, it may be differentially weathered chemically, to remove the calcium shell, resulting in a rattling rock.

There are a few other possibilities. It could be a concretion from an animal's gut, like a gall stone or a bezoar stone. Or a stone swallowed by an animal, a gastrolith, like a grindstone in the gizzard of a bird or reptile, from a dinosaur fossil or recently employed.

You will need to open it to identify the origin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrolith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezoar
 
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If it is hollow might not be a meteorite, as they fuse in entry to the Earth's atmosphere. Hollow rocks are most likely be a geode.
 
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  • #12
onion said:
I have this rock that I'm assuming, after research, is a meteorite. When you shake it slightly you can hear something knocking around on the inside.

hi ya
welcome to PF :)
In the over 300 meteorites I have and the probably 1000's of others I have seen, I have never seen a hollow one.

As @Baluncore and @Terrakron have suggested, and I agree with them it's likely to be a geode ( thunderegg) or a rattlestone.
The look of the outer surface doesnt really give me any confidence of it being a meteorite

cheers
Dave
 
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