Meteorite | Erg Chech 002 | Achondrite | 37,53 g

Product detailed description

May 2020. Erg Chech [erg šeš] area in the western Sahara. After months of searching, a group of searchers stumbles upon a hard object in the endless sea of sand. Already after its discovery, it is clear that this find will go down in history. Before the eyes of the people who have devoted their lives to the search for meteorites lies an object that resembles no meteorite known before... Subsequent research reveals that it is a piece of rock some 4.566 billion years old. It cannot be of terrestrial origin, if only because our planet itself was formed some 23 million years later.

The Erg Chech 002 meteorite, as it has been named, was formed in a large solar system body (protoplanet) by volcanic activity and is therefore essentially a piece of lava. Lava so old that this meteorite is the oldest solar system object ever discovered by mankind. According to research, its parent planet was formed just two million years after the solar system was formed, and the meteorite separated from it after about another million years. The planet was then most likely swallowed up by one of the larger (current) planets in the solar system.

The particular piece offered weighs 37.53 g. This piece is dominated by a beautiful pyroxene crystal which you can see on the inside where the cut was made and also a long crystal on the outside. Because of its beauty, this meteorite is increasingly sought after by enthusiastic collectors.

The composition of this meteorite is very unusual compared to other similar objects. Erg Chech 002 is almost entirely made up of crystals containing large amounts of quartz, which is rare in meteorites and is found only in very minute quantities.

Erg Chech 002 is classified as andesite, which is very unusual. Of the more than 3,000 known meteorites from the mantles of various planets and asteroids, the vast majority are rock basalts, and only units of andesite meteorites have been found so far. This fact indicates that the meteorite must have formed inside a planet with a large amount of water. Also, the oxygen isotopes do not match any other achondrite meteorite from the Moon, Mars or asteroids such as Vesta.

To date, about 30 kg of variously sized pieces have been found, and there are virtually no further finds. This number is therefore likely to be finite and it is almost certain that the price of this meteorite will steadily increase.