Iron Meteorites In 1890, a lone prospector discovered a lump of iron weighing 22.7 kg in a Japanese mountain range, a rock which is now on display at the National Science Museum in Tokyo. Several years after discovery, scientists learned it was an iron meteorite, so called because many meteorites have have large iron contents. However, about a quarter of the celestial rock has been cut out because a Japanese politician, Takeake Enomoto, Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, made the meteorite into three swords. A long one and two shorter ones. He presented these swords to the crown prince, later to become Emperor Taisho. The gifts of the Foreign Affairs Minister are sti