Iron, fine octahedrite – IVA; Kiruna, Sweden (67°48’ N, 23°6’ E)

Possessing what is among the highest terrestrial ages of any meteorite, Muonionalusta fell to Earth about one million years ago in what is now northern Sweden near the Muonio River for which the meteorite was named. While meteorite hunters have unearthed numerous masses in recent years using metal detectors, it was back in 1906 that children discovered the first Muonionalusta meteorite while engaging in the pastime of kicking rocks — and finding one they couldn’t readily kick.

Despite its age, most specimens exhibit only minor interior weathering due to their composition and having been kept on ice in the freezer of the Arctic. Muonionalusta specimens are believed to be glacial erratics (material transported by a glacier), and their exposure to churning rocks and ice would account for the smooth surface and prosaic shapes of most specimens. As a result of being churned within one of Earth’s largest rock tumblers, most Muonionalusta meteorites are unexceptional and not aesthetic forms. The specimen offered here has been sliced from a larger mass to reveal its internal splendor.

As the crystalline intergrowth now seen does not appear in terrestrial iron ores, its presence is diagnostic for iron meteorites, and pattern variations are frequently indicative of different meteorites. This latticework, referred to as a Widmanstätten pattern, is a product of the solid-state intergrowth of two different iron-nickel minerals: kamacite (the low-nickel variety) and taenite (the high-nickel variety). The sockets are the result of cutting through two depressions in the meteorite — small sockets that grew in size over the course of a million years from exposure to Earth’s elements. From the core of an asteroid to a long residency in the Arctic, this is an engaging complete slice of an iron meteorite.

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.

66 x 169 x 2mm (2.66 x 6.75 x 0.1 in.) 125.2g (0.25 lbs)