NWA 12691 — RARE LUNAR SPHERE - photo 1

NWA 12691 — RARE LUNAR SPHERE

Lot 39
23.02.2021 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 500 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 491249
Lot 39 | NWA 12691 — RARE LUNAR SPHERE
Estimate value
$ 15 000 – 25 000
The Moon is among the rarest substances on Earth with only 750 kilograms of lunar meteorites known to exist. Now offered is a complete sphere fashioned from a Moon rock ejected from the lunar surface following an asteroid impact. Moon rocks are identified by specific textural, mineralogical, chemical and isotopic signatures. Many of the common minerals found on Earth’s surface are rare or absent on the Moon and some lunar minerals are unknown on Earth. In addition, Moon rocks contain gases captured from the solar wind with isotope ratios very different from the same gases found on Earth. Every lunar meteorite known could be contained in just five footlockers, and a significant fraction are controlled by governmental institutions. Not one milligram of Apollo material is available for private ownership.

Two years ago a strewn field of lunar meteorites was discovered straddling the Mauritanian, Western Saharan and Algerian borders. Nearly 250 kg of lunar meteorites were recovered — nearly doubling the mass of all lunar meteorites known. An extraordinary bounty, this created the opportunity to fashion a limited number of lunar spheres of this particular lunar meteorite, NWA 12691. It’s only because of the amount of NWA 12691 found that the possibility of rendering spheres exists. There is insufficient material of other Moon rocks to undertake the fabrication of spheres, as rocks far greater in size than the resulting sphere are needed. The trimming, grinding and polishing regimens result in a good deal of material loss — and thus the reason for the conservatorship of one of the rarest substances on Earth. It may be decades before another lunar meteorite with a sufficiently high total known weight will be found to provide the possibility of additional spheres. Now offered is an exceedingly limited and captivating presentation of the Moon.

NWA 12691 is a lunar sphere composed of fragments of olivine, pigeonite, augite, ilmenite and signature white anorthite naturally cemented together by what was a melt of lunar regolith and other crushed rock. The curved face of this sphere reveals a number of inclusions, the result of the ongoing bombardment to which the Moon’s surface was exposed prior to the collision responsible for launching this rock to Earth. Modern fashioning.

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.

The analysis of this meteorite was led by Dr. Anthony Irving, whose findings underwent peer review by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. The analysis and classification was published in the 108th edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin — the official registry of meteorites.

43mm (1.66 inches) in diameter and 123.9 grams (0.25 pounds)
Category:Meteorite
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
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09.02.2021 – 23.02.2021
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