[meteorite-list] Meteoroids Before Meteorites

[ensoramanda at ntlworld.com]

and following on from that...what would an iron meteroid/aseroid look like in space....would there be any sign of metallic lustre or would space weathering have darkened the surface?

Graham Ensor

---- Eric Wichman <eric at meteoritewatch.com> wrote: 
> Hi all,
> 
> While looking at photos of our most recent extraterrestrial visitor, the 
> West meteorite, I was wondering what the "meteoroid" looked like while 
> floating around in space... Look how nice and white this piece is on the 
> "inside". http://www.rocksfromspace.org/133g_Interior.JPG Fusion crust 
> is only formed while entering our planets atmosphere. Meaning that this 
> meteorite was obviously whitish in color while still a meteoroid. Right?
> 
> Space is a vacuum, and a vacuum preserves things right? Look at the moon 
> and all the wonderful craters and how wonderfully preserved they are. 
> The moon never changes color except when viewed through our atmosphere. 
>  From space it looks the same as it did millions of years ago.
> 
> Does this mean that the West meteoroid, while in space and "before" it 
> hit our planet, was white? I mean, it's not like the minerals that make 
> up the meteoroid change colors before hitting our planet. Right?
> 
> I guess the reason I ask this is that we all see photos of asteroids 
> that are dark gray, gray-black or brown blobs of space rock floating 
> around the solar system. I think our perception of meteorites are quite 
> different. We tend to think of rocks from space as dark rocks floating 
> around aimlessly and randomly bumping into one another occasionally 
> sending pieces our way to be pulled in by our planets gravity.
> 
> Are there huge white rocks floating around out there? And if so, 
> wouldn't they be slightly easier to spot than a dark blob of an asteroid?
> 
> I hope these aren't dumb questions.
> 
> Eric
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