Large Tektite from the Middle East Deserts

Tektites are far less known than meteorites to the general public. They often come with rather dubious descriptions. Simply, when a super hot meteor strikes the sand they are melted together and form a tektite. Tektites are not something that landed from space like a meteor, but rather is the product of that meteor and sand it struck.

When we watch a meteor shower those blazing trails in the sky are a super hot meteor burning up as it hit the atmosphere. All that lovely and brief spectacle comes from tiny particles burning as flies through our atmosphere. Most are microscopic to pea sized. It's hard to imagine such a spectacle is cause by a tiny little rock from outer space. And in another bit of misidentification, they are not "falling" stars or even falling little meteors. They are hardly falling but are always seen hitting the atmosphere at extreme speed and temperature at the angle to earth you see as the streak across the sky--but never falling like an apple off a tree, that's for sure.

Tektites can be found as translucent to clear glass or like those black ones offered here.

This large tektite mass is nearly 2 inches in diameter and more than 1/2 inch thick. They often can be mistaken for meteors because they can have that pocked surface common to some meteoites.