Complete Slice of Rock from the Planet Mars – 008 Plateau du Tademait 008 - photo 1

Complete Slice of Rock from the Planet Mars – 008 Plateau du Tademait 008

Lot 19
12.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1353347
Lot 19 | Complete Slice of Rock from the Planet Mars – 008 Plateau du Tademait 008
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Mars Rock – SNC, olivine-phyric shergottite
130 x 135 x 2mm.

An outstanding complete slice of Mars rock.

This otherworldly-looking specimen is in fact from another world — Mars. The delivery mechanism to Earth was an asteroid impact on Mars that ejected material off the Martian surface into an Earth-crossing orbit. Among the most exotic substances on Earth, there are less than 400 kg of Mars on Earth known to exist. The determination of Martian origin is the result of research conducted by hundreds of scientists throughout the world who identify the specific chemical and isotopic markers common to Martian specimens.

Glassy mineral inclusions are common to this exotic class of meteorites and within the inclusions are tiny vugs, and it was discovered within these voids were minute amounts of gas. The gas was analyzed and was found to match perfectly with the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking missions in the late 70s.

Meteorites are named after the places where they are recovered and this slice was cut from a single small rock found near Adrar, Algeria. The 008 suffix indicates this was the eighth meteorite to be found and classified from this region. Weighing only 2.4 kilograms, this strange looking stone was recovered by Algerian meteorite hunters in the Plateau du Tademait region of the Sahara Desert and was purchased in 2022. Its Martian classification was performed by a team led by Dr. Carl Agee, among the world’s foremost experts in the classification of Martian and lunar meteorites.

The rim of this slice contains patches of fusion crust, an artifact which resulted from its fiery entry through Earth’s atmosphere. When cut and polished, numerous pale green olivine phenocrysts up to ~1 cm in diameter that enclose smaller pyroxene grains are much in evidence. The groundmass consists of dark gray pyroxene and olivine grains. In terms of modal abundances, its composition is 50% clinopyroxene, 25% olivine, 10% maskelynite — the impact glass which is unknown to occur on Earth except in meteorites and which contains minute samples of Martian atmosphere — with accessory ilmenite, chromite, Ti-Cr spinel, and pyrite. Modern cutting.
99 grams
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.11.2024 – 12.12.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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