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How did scientists determine that Odessa Meteor Crater in Texas was made by a metallic meteorite?

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four impact craters — Meteorite crater Four impact craters of the same size (30 km [20 miles] in diameter) imaged by spacecraft on different solid bodies of the solar system and reproduced at the same scale. They are (clockwise from upper left) Golubkhina crater on Venus, Kepler crater on the Moon, an unnamed crater on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and an unnamed crater on Mars. The images are oriented such that the craters appear illuminated from the left; the Venusian crater is imaged in radar wavelengths, the others in visible light.

Scientists determined that the Odessa Meteor Crater in Texas was created by a metallic meteorite through the collection and analysis of physical evidence found at the site. In 1939, researchers recovered nearly 1,500 nickel-iron meteorite fragments from the ground surrounding the crater and along its rim.1

The composition of these recovered fragments provided the definitive evidence that the impact was caused by a rare metallic meteorite, rather than a more common stony one. This classification is based on the proportions of rock-forming minerals and metal alloy present in the samples. Such metallic meteorites are believed to have originated from the breakup of a planetoid, likely representing the dense metallic core of a differentiated body.12