Diogenite; Sahara Desert, North West Africa

End cut displaying gray pyroxene and milky plagioclase within a lithology of vesicular, very fine grained material. Polished to mirror finish. The meteorite was part of a huge asteroid fragment excavated from the lower crust of Vesta by an energetic collision early in Solar-System history. While traveling through interplanetary space, pieces broke off this fragment. The present meteorite probably broke off its parent mass a few million years ago and was sent on a collision course with Earth.


Vesta is the second largest asteroid and the only large one covered with basalt – the same fine-grained volcanic rock that spews from Hawaiian volcanoes, makes up the dark areas of the Moon, and the huge shield volcanoes on Mars. Three groups of achondrites (igneous meteorites) are widely thought to have come from Vesta; these are the HED meteorites – Howardites, Eucrites and Diogenites. Eucrites are basalts derived from the surface and upper crust of Vesta; diogenites are from the deep crust; and howardites are impact mixtures of both groups. Diogenites are rare objects, making up just 0.8% of known meteorites. NWA 8744 is the 8,744th sample to be catalogued following its recovery in the Northwest African grid of the Sahara Desert; two large stones and two small stones were found in 2014.

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.
145 mm x 100 mm x 45 mm
1,043g.

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