The most beautiful extraterrestrial substances known are pallasites that formed at the boundary of the stony mantle and molten metal core of an asteroid. This material was liberated when the parent asteroid shattered following a cataclysmic impact with another asteroid — and a very small bit landed on Earth. As one might expect, samples of a boundary region within an asteroid are extremely rare and, indeed, they represent only about 0.2% of all known meteorites. The first Seymchan meteorites were found near a streambed in the Magadan district of Siberia — the location of Stalin’s infamous gulags.

Given the amount of material lost during the grinding and polishing processes, to make a sphere of this size requires a mass nearly three times that of the sphere. This is a wondrous three-dimensional presentation of a pallasite, revealing aspects of the structure impossible to see on a flat slab. This specimen also features inclusions of chromite and a single inclusion of schreibersite near the center-right. Many researchers believe schreibersite was a significant source of the phosphorus — delivered to Earth billions of years ago via asteroid impacts — which enabled life. Crystals of olivine and peridot (the birthstone of August) appear to be floating in a metallic sea — an evocation not far afield from the actual case of its parent asteroid having been adrift in the void of interplanetary space. Older than Earth, now offered is an outstanding example of an extraterrestrial crystal ball.

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.

109mm (4.25 in.) in diameter and 3.203 kg (7 lbs)