Lot 802
Meteorite Campo del Cielo Sphere. The famous iron-nickel meteorite Campo del Cielo fell to the earth over 4,000 years ago in mountainous region of Gran Chaco, Argentina, 500 miles north-northwest of Buenos Aries, in one of the largest and undoubtedly most dramatic falls in the last 10,000 years. Meteorites from this fall were scattered over hundreds of square miles of inaccessible terrain. This 1.6 inch diameter 475 gram sphere (over one pound) has been polished and etched to show its Widmanstatten pattern which results from two alloys of Nickel in the meteorite etching at different rates. There are no iron-nickel rocks on Earth that exibit a Widmanstatten pattern because the parent asteroid where these iron-nickel meteorites originate was destroyed by impact with another large asteroid and the iron-nickel core had to cool at the very slow rate of a couple of degrees per million years to allow enough time for the nickel alloys Kamacite and Taenite to separate.
Add $15 for domestic shipping.
Estimated Value $275 - 400.
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| Realized $324 |
