Meteorites — not to be confused with meteors, the luminescent phenomena in the night sky — are fragments of natural material from outer space that impact Earth. Named after the closest city, geological feature or desert quadrant to which they are “delivered,” meteorites originate from asteroids, the Moon and Mars. This meteorite originates from the second largest meteorite shower of the last several thousand years. Its journey began 385 million years ago, when two asteroids collided, liberating the iron core of at least one of them. A fragment from the core wandered through interplanetary space until February 12, 1947 when there was another collision — this time with Earth. Upon slamming into the atmosphere it began to break apart, producing a fireball brighter than the Sun while sailing over Siberia’s Sikhote-Alin Mountains. As a result of the pressure exerted on the main mass, another explosion occurred at a very low altitude; the resulting shockwaves collapsed chimneys, shattered windows and uprooted trees. Sonic booms were heard more than 300 kilometers away and a 33-km long smoke trail hung in the sky for hours. A famous painting of the event by artist and eye-witness P. I. Medvedev was reproduced as a postage stamp issued by the Soviet government in 1957 to commemorate what many had likened to the end of the world. There are two types of Sikhote-Alin meteorites: the gently scalloped specimens (that broke free of the main mass in the upper atmosphere) and the jagged and twisted specimens (that resulted from the low-altitude explosion of the main mass). Wrapped in a deep pewter-hued patina with charcoal accents and chrome highlights, this offering is somewhat of a hybrid example. It features both regmaglypts as well as lengthy striations where the meteorite was shorn apart. Iron meteorites represent less than 2% of all meteorites and only 49 irons are witnessed falls — just 3.4% of the 2%. Now offered is an extremely engaging example from one of the biggest m

Provenance: Macovich Collection of Meteorites, New York City