13 - A Rare Aletai Meteorite Cube

A Rare Aletai Meteorite Cube This lot features a shimmering metallic cube extracted from the core of the famous Aletai meteorite, discovered in China's far northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This cube allows a three-dimensional view of the meteorite's internal crystalline matrix, formed from interweaving bands of two iron-nickel alloys, taenite and kamacite — the latter of which is unique to meteorite specimens and found nowhere else on Earth. Weight: 7.70 kg. LOCATION: Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang, China (45° 52' 16"N, 90° 30' 17"E) REFERENCES: Meteoritical Bulletin Entry for Aletai Size: 100 x 100 x 100 mm PROVENANCE: IIIE-an, Iron Meteorite. German Private Collection NOTE: – Aletai is a member of one of the smallest subgroups of iron meteorites in the scientific literature, with only 16 IIIE meteorites on record. And of these 16, Aletai is one of only two that have anomalous chemical abundances, containing the highest concentration of gold in the IIIE group. – Aletai also contains a relatively large amount of iridium, the second densest element in existence. Because the amount of iridium found in meteorites is often much higher than that found in the Earth's crust, it was the unusually large amount iridium present at the 65 million-year-old Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary that led scientists to believe that a massive meteorite impact was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other life forms 65 million years ago. – The entire mass of Aletai is close to 100 tons, and a 28-ton Aletai specimen is the 5th largest single meteorite found on Earth. The strewn field was approximately 500 kilometers long. The shower of meteorite fragments were spread out over such a large area that specimens were given a variety of different names, 'Armanty', 'Xinjiang', and 'Ulasitai', primarily names of cities they were found nearby. As it has now been determined that each of these meteorites originated from the same event, they have all been renamed Aletai.