The magnesium rich members of the solid solution series are common rock-forming minerals found in igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Enstatite and the other orthorhombic pyroxenes are distinguished from those of the monoclinic series by their optical characteristics, such as straight extinction, much weaker double refraction and stronger pleochroism.

Enstatite is white, gray, greenish, or brown in color; its hardness is 5–6 on the Mohs scale, and its specific gravity is 3.2–3.3.

It may form small idiomorphic phenocrysts and also groundmass grains in volcanic rocks such as basalt, andesite, and dacite.

Crystals have been found in stony and iron meteorites, including one that fell at Breitenbach in the Ore Mountains, Bohemia.

In some meteorites, together with olivine it forms the bulk of the material; it can occur in small spherical masses, or chondrules, with an internal radiated structure.

[5] Enstatite is one of the few silicate minerals that have been observed in crystalline form outside the Solar System, particularly around evolved stars and planetary nebulae such as NGC 6302.