This is a limited edition print of NWA 13885 (see lots 50 and 51) created by renowned photographer Neil Buckland. It was captured from a thin section of an NWA 13885 specimen that was 35 microns thick (a human hair is 90-150 microns). Buckland has pioneered a new micro-panoramic imaging system that combines hundreds of individual photographs to yield a seamless "microscape" of unprecedented detail. The ability to image larger areas provides researchers a far greater context in their studies of commingled mineral components. Widely published and exhibited in both galleries and museums, Buckland collaborates with Dr. Anthony Irving, among the world’s foremost meteorite classification experts.

NWA 13885 is an olivine-phyric shergottite — a type of a Mars rock that contains large grains (called phenocrysts) of olivine (that crystallized from the parent magma deep underground) set within a finer-grained groundmass (that crystallized more rapidly near or at the surface of Mars. In this partially cross-polarized (XPL70) image, the large colored grains are the olivine phenocrysts, the smaller prismatic grains are pyroxene (mostly blue), maskelynite (light gray) and opaque oxide minerals (black).

A 12-color archival pigment on 100% cotton rag. Coated with a satin acrylic finish, the print is frameless, glassless and mounted on a birch wood panel. The panel is signed and numbered — limited edition 3 of 9 — on the reverse.

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.

40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6cm)