Extraterrestrial Crystal Ball —Gibeon Meteorite Sphere

As the vast majority of iron meteorites are prosaically shaped, an opportunity exists to showcase their internal crystalline splendor by fashioning slices, cubes and spheres. Gibeon iron meteorites are the bounty of a huge meteorite shower that occurred more than a thousand years ago. Originating from the molten core of an asteroid and after traveling millions of years in interplanetary space, it slammed into Earth’s upper atmosphere before exploding and raining down over an elliptical strewn field in what is now Namibia. Due to a relatively high nickel content (8%), Gibeon is ductile and not as prone to oxidizing as most other iron meteorites. Only when cut and etched, the fine octahedral intergrowth of a Gibeon’s primary alloys is revealed.

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.