Eucrite – AEUC Martinho Campos, Minas Gerais, Brazil (19°42’ S, 43°93’ W)

With untold bubbles dispersed throughout its ivory matrix, Ibitira is one of the few vesicular meteorites in existence. No other meteorite looks like Ibitira; its petrology indicates it is unlike any other basaltic eucrite and its bulk oxygen-isotopic composition is different than all other eucrites. It seems clear it did not originate from the same parent asteroid as the overwhelming majority of eucrites and is certainly from an otherwise unknown parent body in our solar system.

Ibitira’s arrival on Earth on June 30, 1957 was accompanied by the characteristic visual and sonic phenomena — a fireball and subsequent rumbling resembling thunder. While it was seen to break up in the atmosphere, only one stone weighing approximately 2.5 kilograms wrapped in a glossy black fusion crust was recovered near the town of Ibitira, approximately 400 km northwest of Rio de Janiero. On Christmas Day 1996 the international meteorite community received the following news:

“Dear Sir: We of the Centro de Estudos Astonomicos de Minas Gerais, an amateur astronomers association in Minas Gerais, Brazil, own a meteorite called Ibitira...we decided to sell it for the best offer.”

This partial slice is filled with vesicles; a long patch of fusion crust slopes down the rim of the meteorite’s exterior. Modern cutting.

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.


29 x 35 x 5mm (1 x 1.33 x 0.2 in.) and 12.55g