Two large meteorites added to UCLA Meteorite Gallery

Christelle Nahas - UCLA's Meteorite Gallery has added two large iron meteorites, one weighing more than 800 pounds. The UCLA Meteorite Gallery , California's largest collection of meteorites, has added two large iron meteorites — and both may be touched by the public. Admission to the gallery is free. One of the new meteorites is now the largest in Los Angeles. Weighing 811 pounds, it is more than twice the size of what had been the gallery's largest meteorite. It was found in Namibia, and is being displayed thanks to a long-term loan by UCLA alumnus Peter Utas and his wife, Barbara Broide. John Wasson, the gallery's curator and a professor of geochemistry and chemistry in the UCLA College, described the specimen as "beautiful, with parallel sets of fine bands crossing it." The other meteorite, also on loan from the Utas family, weighs 326 pounds and was found in Texas.