Extraterrestrial olivine and peridot are suspended in the highly-polished iron-nickel matrix originating from an asteroid’s core. This complete slice of an Admire meteorite is delimited by the meteorite’s external surface. The large angular crystals in this specimen are a superior example of Admire’s crystalline olivine signature. Modern cutting.
287 x 158 x 2 mm. (11¼ x 6¼ x ⅛ in.) and 454.4 g. (1 lbs)

Widely considered to be the most beautiful otherworldly substance known. Admire pallasites are readily identified by large polycrystalline areas that cleaved into highly angular shards — the result of a collision on its parent asteroid. It is rare that the distribution of such angular crystals is as pleasing as in the example now offered. While meteorites are among the rarest substances on Earth — all the world’s meteorites weigh less than the world’s annual output of gold — pallasites are rarer still as they represent less than 0.2% of all known meteorites. Pallasites formed at the core-mantle boundary of an asteroid when some of the mantle’s olivine, which is in proximity to the molten metallic core, crystallized. As a result of the asteroid having been shattered following a collision with another asteroid, inner sections of this asteroid became liberated with a bit of it having found its way to Earth. Gem-quality olivine or peridot (the August birthstone) is found in some pallasites — including the current offering. The first two masses of the Admire pallasites were discovered while plowing a field in Lyon County, Kansas in 1881. More than a century later, enterprising meteorite hunters returned to the site, and after a lot more plowing (with the use of a metal detector) additional samples of Admire were recovered.

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.