PAL – Pallasite  Admire, Lyon County, Kansas (38°42' N, 96°6' W)

Lot Description:
This tendril-like specimen exhibits green-to-caramel crystals of extraterrestrial olivine suspended in their natural metallic matrix. Pallasites represent less than 0.2% of all known meteorites. The twists in the metal complement the angular crystals scattered in the mass. A large olivine crystal is suspended in the midpoint of this animated specimen. Modern cleaning.
83 x 23 x 28mm (3.25 x 1 x 1 in.)
54.82g

The Admire pallasite formed at the mantle-core boundary of an asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago. Deep inside the asteroid, molten metal from the outer core mixed with chunks of the stony olivine mantle that had crystallized above it. Things remained quiet for Admire until a major collision shattered the asteroid about 100 million years ago; this event and subsequent collisions sent this pallasite material on a collision course with Earth. The first piece of Admire to be found was ploughed up in Lyon County, Kansas in 1881. The unusual specimen now offered was recovered more recently.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.