Iron coarse octahedrite– IAB-MG Gran Chaco, Argentina

Campo del Cielo (“Valley of the Sky”) meteorites are the result of a cataclysmic collision between two asteroids in interplanetary space while traveling at cosmic velocity. When a large fragment from one of these asteroids hit Earth’s upper atmosphere 6,000 years ago, the pressure then caused the fragment to explode into thousands of pieces. The larger meteorites struck the ground at such a high velocity that an array of at least 26 impact craters formed, the largest measuring a football field in diameter. This meteorite—and the other Campos in this offering—were recovered from a higher elevation than from where the vast majority of Campo meteorites fell. As a result, they were less susceptible to incursions of ground water and other oxidants and are superior in every way to those Campo del Cielo meteorites found at lower elevations. This meteorite formed on an asteroid located between Jupiter and Mars.

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 catalog note.