Etched meteorite showing Widmanstatten patterns and Neumann lines.
The above procedure was performed by Sam Evans in Adelaide, Australia. He began with a meteorite having a mass of 1534 grams. The authenticity of this meteor was confirmed by EDX (see spectra below) courtesy of Professor Allan Pring of the South Australian Museum. A similar meteorite can be purchased inexpensively on eBay. The total cleaning time was 1709 hours, after which the meteorite was decreased to 1359 grams. A time lapse of this cleaning process can be found in Table 1.
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| Spectra of Iron/Nickel Meteorite |
The effectiveness of the electrolytic process can be seen in the small Campo del Cielo Iron/Nickel meteorite (600 gram) sample. The sample was cleaned using electrolysis three years ago. It was left uncoated on top of a mineral cabinet and still showed no signs of rust after three years.