OCTAHEDRITE

any iron meteorite containing between 6 and 11 percent nickel and having an eight-sided crystal structure. Etching a polished surface brings out an unusual design called the Widmansttten pattern, which results from the presence of a system of lamellae parallel to the faces of an octahedron. The classification of the octahedrites is based on the width of the lamellae. Besides nickel-iron, major minerals in octahedrites are troilite and schreibersite.