Are you flush? Meteorite auction is underway

Christie’s is holding an online meteor auction from November 11-25 featuring lunar, martian and asteroidial meteorites.

The current lowest bid is US$750 for a slice of meteorite NWA 7502 that contains dust of the early solar system. The highest bid is US$14,000 for a complete slice of the imalic meteorite, “considered to be the most beautiful of all meteorite varieties.”

Here are some our favourites. See all the meteorites at Christie’s auction page:

A Complete Slice of Imilac Meteorite

Current bid: US$14,000

Discovered in the Atacama Desert, Chile, 1822; modern cutting. “Imilac is a member of the pallasite group of meteorites, widely considered to be the most beautiful of all meteorite varieties.”

A Gibeon Meteorite Sphere; modern cutting

Current bid: US$4,000

Discovered in Namaland, Namibia, 1836. “Gibeon is a spectacular iron meteorite from Namibia. Although familiar to the natives, who had hammered parts of it into metal weapons, the Gibeon meteorite was not known to westerners until about 1836.”

A Zoomorphic Gibeon Meteorite with a Natural Hole

Current bid; US$45,000

From Gibeon, Great Nama Land, Namibia. “[This] Gibeon meteorite features a naturally formed hole as a result of terrestrialization, or exposure to the elements. It is rare for meteorites to exhibit such holes, and rarer still when the hole is positioned in the matrix in such a way as to yield an aesthetic specimen.”

An End-Piece from a Seymchan Meteorite

Current bid: US$48,000

Discovered in Russia, 1967; modern cutting. “Seymchan is an unusual and remarkable pallasite; large portions of the rock are olivine free.”