Included in Deep Impact are a meteorite that contains the oldest matter mankind can touch and another that contains the raw ingredients of our planets.
It’s time to get out of this world quite literally with an auction that is putting rare meteorites and gems from outer space on sale.
Christie’s presents Deep Impact: Martian Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites, an online-only sale of rare meteorites open for bid between 9-23 February 2021. The weight of every known meteorite is less than the world’s annual output of gold. The estimates range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The sale will offer 72 of the 75 lots at no reserve, with estimates starting at $250.
Rare gems
Included in Deep Impact are a meteorite that contains the oldest matter mankind can touch and another that contains the raw ingredients of our planets. There are a dozen offerings of the Moon and the planet Mars and another dozen from some of the most famous museums in the world — as well as meteorites containing gems from outer space.
A highlight from the sale is a highly aesthetic oriented stone meteorite (estimate: $50,000-80,000; offered at no reserve), weighing nearly 7.2kg (16lbs). Unlike 99% of all other meteorites, this meteorite did not tumble or invert as it plunged to Earth but maintained a stable orientation throughout its descent. The surface that faced Earth showcases elongated flight marks that radiate outwards in this compelling, extraterrestrial aerodynamic form.
Look up James Hyslop, Head of Science and Natural History, Christie’s, commented: “Everyone has an image in mind of how a meteorite "should look" – an extraterrestrial body frictionally heated while punching through Earth's atmosphere. Rarely do the objects survive this fiery descent look like that shared ideal seen in this meteorite. It is a wonder to behold and an honor to have been entrusted with its sale.”
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There is also the most unlikely of meteorites: one that never hit the Earth. Also offered at no reserve is a large slice of a rock from Mars (estimate: $30,000-50,000) within which bubbles of impact glass contain Martian atmosphere; a large iron meteorite from Odessa, Texas — home of the single largest meteorite shower to have occurred in the U.S. (estimate: $40,000-60,000), and specimens from the Macovich Collection, the world’s foremost collection of aesthetic iron meteorites, several of which are offered for the first time at auction.
There is also the most unlikely of meteorites: one that never hit the Earth. The day after the Tirhert meteorite shower in Morocco a man took his young son to the site of the strewn field. While adults searched the ground , the young boy instead searched for some shade where he found the specimen now offered wedged between the branches of his shade tree as well as quite a bit of local celebrity (estimate: $15,000 – 25,000; offered at no reserve).
A Swedish meteorite from the core of a shattered asteroid was fashioned into a sphere; with its robust natural crystalline structure seen in three dimensions this is an extraterrestrial crystal ball (estimate $14,000 – 18,000; offered at no reserve), and the future it sees is an eye-widening sale.
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Apophis Can Wipe Out A Country: A Look At Every Massive Asteroid That Has Hit Earth
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A monster asteroid - named Apophis after the Egyptian 'God of Chaos' - is likely to swoosh past Earth, but there is a slight chance that it may hit the planet.
The bigger-than-Eiffel Tower asteroid, weighing around 27 billion-kg, could leave a crater impact of 1.6 km wide in diameter and 518 metre deep. It has the capacity of an 880 million tonne TNT explosion that can wipe out large cities or even an entire country.
First spotted in August 2006, the ‘hazardous’ asteroid was initially named 2006 QQ23.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency recently released a 'risk list' of 878 asteroids that are likely to cause a massive impact on Earth in the next 100 years.
Here's a look at all the asteroids Earth has braved.
A monster asteroid - named Apophis after the Egyptian 'God of Chaos' - is likely to swoosh past Earth, but there is a slight chance that it may hit the planet.The bigger-than-Eiffel Tower asteroid, w..
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This is the famous asteroid impact that hit Earth approximately 66 million years ago in the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula state, during the end of the Cretaceous period.
The asteroid was between 11-81 km in diameter. Its impact caused a 180 kilometre wide crater, making it one of biggest known impactors on Earth. The asteroid heated organic matter in rocks and ejected it into the atmosphere, forming soot in the stratosphere. Soot is a strong, light-absorbing aerosol that caused global climate changes that triggered the mass extinction of dinosaurs, ammonites, and other animals, and led to the macroevolution of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The Apophis asteroid is relatively smaller in size compared to this one.
This is the famous asteroid impact that hit Earth approximately 66 million years ago in the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula state, during the end of the Cretaceous period...
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In March or April of 1490, China's Qingyang city experienced the Ch'ing-yang air burst. The meteor shower may have occurred because it got disintegrated from an asteroid after entering the atmosphere. While there hasn't been any confirmation, it is believed that the meteor shower may have caused a large number of casualties.
In March or April of 1490, China's Qingyang city experienced the Ch'ing-yang air burst. The meteor shower may have occurred because it got disintegrated from an asteroid after entering the atmosphere..
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On June 1908, Russia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, which is now now Krasnoyarsk Krai, saw a large explosion. With three casualties and an impact stretch of over 2,000 sq km, the carter - the circular, bowl-shaped depression on the surface of the Earth - was never found.
The researchers believe that the object was disintegrated about 5-10 km before hitting the surface. Considered as Earth's largest impact event, its size was estimated somewhere between 50 metre and 190 metre, depending on the speed at which it travelled. Its energy was estimated to be 1,000 times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack, knocking down around 80 million trees due to the shock wave, which was capable of wiping out a metropolitan city.
On June 1908, Russia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, which is now now Krasnoyarsk Krai, saw a large explosion. With three casualties and an impact stretch of over 2,000 sq km,..
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This superbolide (a meteor brighter than the moon that radiate energy due to friction or pressure, and exploded after entering the atmosphere) entered our planet's atmosphere on February 2013 over southern Ural region in Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast. An approximately 20-metre asteroid turned into a fireball, emitting light brighter than the Sun that was visible from a distance of up to 100 km.
While the atmosphere absorbed most of the object's energy, it resulted in major shock waves that shattered glass, damaged buildings and even caused 1,500 injuries. If the energy wasn't absorbed, the impact could have been 26-33 times greater than the nuclear blast at Hiroshima.
With over 12,000K – 13,000K kg heavier than France's Eiffel Tower, this is the biggest natural object that entered the atmosphere ever since the 1908 Tunguska impact.
This superbolide (a meteor brighter than the moon that radiate energy due to friction or pressure, and exploded after entering the atmosphere) entered our planet's atmosphere on February 2013 over ..
