page_title: Pallasite
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pallasite / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hand-colored drawing of the meteorite Krasnojarsk (Pallas iron) Italiano: Illustrazione colorata a mano del meteorite Krasnojarsk (Pallas iron)
context_page_description: The pallasites are a class of stony–iron meteorite.
context_section_description: A common error is to associate their name with the asteroid 2 Pallas but their actual name is after the German naturalist Peter Pallas (1741–1811), who studied in 1772 a specimen found earlier near Krasnoyarsk in the mountains of Siberia that had a mass of 680 kilograms (1,500 lb). The Krasnoyarsk mass described by Pallas in 1776 was one of the examples used by E.F.F. Chladni in the 1790s to demonstrate the reality of meteorite falls on the Earth, which were at his time considered by most scientists as fairytales. This rock mass was dissimilar to all rocks or ores found in this area (and the large piece could not have been accidentally transported to the find site), but its content of native metal was similar to other finds known from completely different areas.
caption: Krasnojarsk meteorite
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