COMPLETE MILLBILLILLIE METEORITE FROM THE ASTEROID VESTA,

COMPLETE MILLBILLILLIE METEORITE FROM THE ASTEROID VESTA
FELL IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 1960
This specimen was recovered by aboriginal tribesman. It was only when aborigines left their government-subsidized jobs in the citrus fields to earn more money collecting meteorites that specimens of Millbillillie were widely recovered. Unusually geometric, this specimen reveals two aspects of frictional heating in Earth’s atmosphere: it is wrapped in a glossy fusion crust which is further embellished with abundant flow lines, an artifact of the material having flowed off the mass while melting during atmospheric entry. A prominent persimmon-colored band of terrestrial caliche (calcium carbonate), a signature of the Australian Outback, further embellishes this specimen. Embodying Millbillillie’s finest qualities, this is a superb example of a fabled Australian meteorite.
3¼ x 2¼ x 2in. (8.2 x 6.1 x 4.9cm.)
317g

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Lot Essay

Complete Millbillillie Meteorite from the Asteroid Vesta

During an early afternoon in October 1960, a fireball was seen to be streaking over Western Australia, but a decade passed before the first stone was discovered, and many have subsequently been found. Millbillillie is a eucrite; it originated as a basalt flow on or near the surface of the second largest asteroid in the solar system, Vesta (mean diameter 525 km). Most scientists believe that eucrites were derived from Vesta because it is the only large asteroid with a basalt-covered surface. Data transmitted from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which orbited the asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, support this conclusion. In counterpoint to the primitive meteorites in this offering, Millbillillie is an achondrite, it does not have any chondrules. The chondritic material from which it originated underwent complete melting during which the metal and silicate separated.

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 catalogue note.