A groove extending its length of this meteorite and the adjacent planar surface provide a sense of animation. These surfaces became covered with regmaglypts during this meteorite’s blazing descent to Earth. The slightly parabolic reverse exhibits ablation lipping as well as flow lines (characteristics that this meteorite maintained the same orientation—at least briefly—during its plunge through the atmosphere). Draped in a deep gunmetal patina, this is a splendid representation from one of the most historic meteorite events of all time.
59 x 75 x 41 mm. (2.33 x 3 x 1.5 in.)

717 g. (1.5 lbs.)

This rather dynamic meteorite is from the biggest meteorite shower of the last several thousand years. Its journey began 320 million years ago, when a giant iron mass broke-off from its parent body in the asteroid belt and wandered through interplanetary space until it encountered Earth on 12 February 1947. Upon slamming into the atmosphere it began to break apart, creating a fireball brighter than the Sun as it sailed over the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in Siberia. The shockwaves from the low altitude explosion of the main mass collapsed chimneys, shattered windows and uprooted trees. A 33-kilometer-long smoke trail persisted in the sky for several hours, and many of the resulting meteorites produced impact craters as large as 26 meters—with nearly 200 craters having been catalogued. A famous painting of the event by artist and eye-witness P. I. Medvedev was reproduced as a postage stamp issued by the Soviet government in 1957 to commemorate what many likened to the end of the world. There are two types of Sikhote-Alin meteorites: jagged and twisted shrapnel-like specimens (the result of the low-altitude explosion of the main mass), and the more sought-after smooth, gently scalloped specimens that broke free at a much higher altitude and formed the aerodynamic thumb prints known as regmaglypts. From the largest meteorite shower since the dawn of civilization, this is a superior example of the more sought-after variety.

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.