Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Meteorites are fascinating cosmic visitors. Using accessible language, this book documents the history of mineralogy and meteorite research, summarizes the mineralogical characteristics of the myriad varieties of meteorites, and explains the mineralogical characteristics of Solar System bodies visited by spacecraft. Some of these bodies contain minerals that do not occur naturally on Earth or in meteorites. The book explains how to recognize different phases under the microscope and in backscattered electron images. It summarizes the major ways in which meteoritic minerals form - from condensation in the expanding atmospheres of dying stars to crystallization in deep-seated magmas, from flash melting in the solar nebula to weathering in the terrestrial environment. Containing spectacular backscattered electron images, color photographs of meteorite minerals, and with an accompanying online list of meteorite minerals, this book provides a useful resource for meteorite researchers, terrestrial mineralogists, cosmochemists, and planetary scientists, as well as graduate students in these fields. Alan Rubin is a meteorite researcher who recently retired from the University of California, where he worked as a research geochemist. He is a fellow of the Meteoritical Society and winner of the Nininger Meteorite Award and seven Griffith Observer science writing awards. He is the namesake of the garnet mineral rubinite and the main-belt asteroid 6227Alanrubin. He is the author of 200 research papers and 50 popular science articles. He is also the author of Disturbing the Solar System (Princeton, 2004). Chi Ma is a mineralogist at the California Institute of Technology, with research interests in nanomineralogy and the discovery of new minerals, especially those representing extreme conditions of formation. He has discovered and led investigations on 45 new minerals, including 14 refractory minerals from the solar nebula and 11 high-pressure minerals. He is a fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America. The oxide mineral machiite was named in his honor"--