Meteorite Analysis as an Educational Tool at the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology

The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) consists of several research laboratories; among them is the Meteorite Center. This paper will showcase the center's capabilities as a unique location in the Gulf region capable of analyzing sample stones to check if they are meteorites or not. The samples are brought by national and international parties to be analyzed and identified as being meteorites or not. Initial tests (density, appearance, magnetic test, and streak test) are conducted in the first phase. Upon passing these tests successfully, further in-depth analysis takes place using advanced analytical techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) available at the Center for Advanced Materials Research at the University of Sharjah. The XRF is an excellent test to determine the sample elemental composition without differentiating between the different chemical compounds. If this test does not give a conclusive result of the sample being a meteorite, the XRD test is then conducted to provide the sample composition in terms of compounds present, degree of crystallinity, and amorphous content. Further tests such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are also available if needed to investigate other parameters such as microscopic structure, surface topography, and elemental composition at high resolution. Since 2017, 90 analysis tests have been conducted over 67 samples. Some samples were tested using only XRF, while others needed XRF and XRD if the XRF tests were not conclusive. Only 6% of the tested samples turned out to be real meteorites, and the remaining were just terrestrial rocks. We will highlight the chemical composition of these detected meteorites and compare them to regular terrestrial stones.