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

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. A major collision shattered the asteroid roughly 100 million years ago and this event, and perhaps subsequent bumps, sent what was to be the Admire pallasite on a collision course with Earth. The first piece of Admire was found after another collision — this time with a plough in Lyon County, Kansas in 1881. The specimen now offered is a more recent recovery. Green-to-caramel crystals of extraterrestrial olivine and peridot are suspended and seemingly cradled within the curves of its natural metallic matrix. Modern cleaning.

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

49 x 41 x 19mm (2 x 1.66 x 0.75 in.) and 61.9 grams