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Abstract

57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy is one of the most commonly used methods for studying meteorites. The beginning of Mössbauer research in Poland is associated with the Baszkówka meteorite, which fell on 25 August 1994 near Warsaw. The article presents some of the results of 30 years of Mössbauer studies of meteorites by the Polish team. One of the most important achievements of our group is the development of a classification method of ordinary chondrites, which constitute 87% of meteorites found on the earth’s surface. This method, which we call the 4M method (meteorites, Mössbauer spectroscopy, multidimensional discriminant analysis, Mahalanobis distance), is a quantitative method that uses certain systematicity in the Mössbauer spectra of ordinary chondrites. The basic element of the 4M method is the database, which currently consists of the results of Mössbauer measurements of 87 meteorite samples. The article also discusses the new mineral phases identified in the Morasko meteorite. Examples of the use of Mössbauer spectroscopy to distinguish meteorite-like samples from real meteorites are given. Our research plans related to the study of the formation mechanism of ordinary chondrites and the use of Mössbauer spectroscopy in future space missions are also discussed. The latter issues will be undertaken in cooperation with the Mössbauer laboratory at Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic).