Nearly 99% of all meteorites originate from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In the case of HED meteorites (howardites, eucrites and diogenites), scientists have found overwhelming evidence they originate from the asteroid Vesta (see lots 11, 17 and 46) — analyses corroborated by NASA’s Dawn Probe which visited Vesta in 2011. On July 27, 1931 the fireball from which this specimen was part, exploded into thousands of pieces and fell just outside the Tunisian town of Foum Tatahouine. Most of the fragments weighed less than one gram. The specimen offered here is an exception. Found by legendary collector Alain Carion, it features Tatahouine’s distinctive olive-green matrix, striated veins and accretions of black shock melt — the result of a collision with another asteroid. Diogenites are coarser grained than eucrites and originate from Vesta’s lower crust.

In acknowledgement of Star Wars scenes shot in Tunisia, Luke Skywalker’s home planet was named “Tatooine”. No other meteorite looks like Tatahouine, and this large specimen is accompanied by two scientific abstracts on its home: the second largest asteroid in our solar system, Vesta.

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.


37 x 29 x 27mm (1.5 x 1 x 1 in.) and 41.68g