Eucrite, monomict breccia – HED achondrite; The Sahara Desert

Glossy fresh black fusion crust and flow lines are all over this flight oriented meteorite. The fresh appearance of this meteorite suggests it might have fallen only months before discovery. The harsh Sahara sands would have rapidly destroyed the fragile crust had it been exposed for any appreciable time.

Unlike 99% of all meteorites, this specimen experienced a minimal amount of tumbling during its plunge through our atmosphere. This situation occurs only when there is a fortuitous distribution of the meteorite’s mass as well as a serendipitous angle of atmospheric entry. As a result of maintaining the same axis of orientation during its descent, such meteorites acquire a wonderful aesthetic appearance and their direction of flight is readily discerned. The parabolic face now seen was, in effect, carved by frictional heating as this meteorite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere. The curvature of this parabola is the precise angle at which heat is most efficiently deflected from any object that penetrates the atmosphere — and this same curvature seen in oriented meteorites inspired the design of the heat shields for NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules.

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.
55 mm x 45 mm x 30 mm (2¹⁄₈ x 1³⁄₄ x 1¹⁄₈ in.)
75g.

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