Do meteors have cobalt in them?

About 95% of all meteorites contain iron-nickel (FeNi) metal. "Iron-nickel" means that the metal is mostly iron but it contains 4-30% nickel as well as a few tenths of a percent cobalt. Iron-nickel metal in meteorites also has high concentrations (by terrestrial standards) of rare metals like gold, platinum, and iridium. read more

Yes, the iron meteorites do often contain cobalt, in amounts ranging from ‘trace’ to ‘significant’. I haven’t been able to find a source that gives actual proportions in individual meteorites. read more

As others have written, such an object would have a lot of kinetic energy but not as much as a nuclear bomb. Kinetic energy goes up as speed squared, and meteors near the Earth are typically moving very fast. They are also denser than baseballs, and a baseball sized meteor would have a mass of one or more kilograms. read more

The first thing most people think of when they hear the word cobalt is the color blue. While the purified metal is a grey steel color, the salts that include cobalt atoms are many shades of blue. The element has been used for hundreds of years, but was named in 1735 by a chemist named Brandt. read more