ALMAHATA SITTA – AFTER TUCSON SHOW PRICES:
Updated April 11, 2011
(Please see at bottom of page the Abstract and expert opinion about this amazing meteorite)
LARGER SPECIMENS (WHOLE AND FRAGMENTS):
No. 1) 5.02g 17x13x11mm $4,900.00 SOLD
Abstract number MS-13: Shock darkened EH4/5
No. 2)
3.55g 18x12x11mm
$3,700.00 SOLD
No. 4)
MS-27 2.83g 27x25x1.6mm
No. 5) MS-28 2.70g 28x26x2mm
$2,950.00 $2500.00
$2,800.00 $2375.00
No. 6) MS-154 4.18g 17x15x11mm $4,100.00 $3450.00
Abstract number MS-154: Ureilite fine-grained
No. 10) MS-161 4.85g 17x13x12mm $4,775.00 $3950.00
Abstract number MS-161: fine-grained ureilite (fa18, suessite)
No. 11) MS-162 4.73g 27x13x10mm $4,625.00 $3900.00
Abstract number MS-162: coarse grained ureilite Fa16-18
No. 12) 9.94g 23x18x16mm $9,050.00 SOLD
Abstract number MS-163: Shock-darkened EH4/5-chondrite, keilite, niningerite, FeS
Slices from classified individual MS-175
Ref#
20
Fragment#
MS175
weight
0.89
dimensions
20 x 10 x 1.8 mm
Classification
Ureilite, coarse-grained
Price $
$ 1,300.00
After Show price
$
1,100.00
21
MS175
0.66
20 x 10 x 1.5 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
965.00
$
820.00
34
MS175
0.05
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
85.00
$
70.00
Slices from classified individual MS-168
Ref#
49
Fragment#
MS-168-3
weight
9.43 g
dimensions
27x25x 9 mm
Classification
Ureilite, fine-grained
Price $
$ 10,350.00
After Show price
$
8,300.00
50
MS-168-4
3.73 g
25x18x 7 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 4,620.00
$
3,920.00
51
MS-168-5
1.78 g
25x18x 1.4mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 2,700.00
$
2,290.00
52
MS-168-6
1.67 g
25x15x 1.5 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 2,590.00
$
2,200.00
53
MS-168-7
0.77 g
15x14x 0.8 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,250.00
$
1,060.00
54
MS-168-8
1.13 g
24x15x 1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,620.00
$
1,375.00
55
MS-168-9
0.71 g
20x11x 1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,125.00
$
955.00
56
MS-168-10
0.73 g
16x12x 1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,175.00
$
995.00
57
MS-168-11
0.69 g
15x12x 1.2 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,100.00
$
935.00
58
MS-168-12
0.74 g
14x14x 1.2mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,200.00
$
1,020.00
62
MS-168-16
0.18 g
8 x 5 x 1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$
350.00
$
295.00
65
MS-168-19
0.15 g
9x5x 0.8 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$
275.00
$
235.00
66
MS-168-20
0.21 g
8x7x1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$
360.00
$
305.00
71
MS-168-25
0.21 g
8x5x1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$
375.00
$
320.00
Slices from classified individual MS-152
Ref#
73
Fragment#
MS-152-1
weight
0.62 g
dimensions
17x17x0.8 mm
Classification
Ureilite, fine-grained
Price $
$ 1,100.00
After Show price
$
935.00
74
MS-152-2
0.68 g
17x15x0.8 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,125.00
$
955.00
75
MS-152-3
0.75 g
18x16x0.8 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,190.00
$
1,015.00
76
MS-152-4
0.53 g
17x15x0.6 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$
890.00
$
755.00
78
MS-152-6
0.76 g
18x15x1 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,195.00
$
1,015.00
80
MS-152-8
1.11 g
17x14x3 mm
Ureilite, fine-grained
$ 1,680.00
$
1,425.00
Slices from classified individual MS-169
Ref#
97
Fragment#
MS-169-3
weight
2.70 g
dimensions
18x18x4 mm
Classification
Ureilite, coarse-grained
Price $
$ 3,950.00
After Show price
$
3,350.00
100
MS-169-6
2.33 g
20x17x5 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$ 3,375.00
$
2,860.00
104
MS-169-10
0.22 g
12x8x5 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
390.00
$
330.00
110
MS-169-16
0.36 g
12x9x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
625.00
$
530.00
111
MS-169-17
0.38 g
10x14x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
660.00
$
560.00
113
MS-169-19
0.25 g
7x9x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
430.00
$
365.00
114
MS-169-20
0.18 g
8x5x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
320.00
$
270.00
Slices from classified individual MS-150
Ref#
116
Fragment#
MS-150-1
weight
2.23 g
dimensions
16x16x7 mm
Classification
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
Price $
$ 4,175.00
After Show price
$
3,550.00
117
MS-150-2
1.30 g
27x18x0.8 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$ 2,475.00
$
2,100.00
118
MS-150-3
1.34 g
22x19x1 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$ 2,575.00
$
2,195.00
119
MS-150-4
1.10 g
20x20x0.9 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$ 2,150.00
$
1,825.00
121
MS-150-6
0.98 g
21x13x0.8 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$ 1,875.00
$
1,595.00
127
MS-150-12
1.07 g
23x20x0.9 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$ 2,025.00
$
1,720.00
130
MS-150-15
0.31 g
8x8x1.2 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$
$
445.00
525.00
134
MS-150-19
0.19 g
6x5x1 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$
350.00
$
295.00
135
MS-150-20
0.24 g
7x6x1.4 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$
425.00
$
360.00
138
MS-150-23
0.31 g
11x7x1.2 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$
550.00
$
465.00
144
MS-150-29
0.07 g
8x2x1 mm
EL6? (oldhamite, troilite)
$
150.00
$
125.00
Classification
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
Price $
4,500.00
Slices from classified individual MS-160
Ref#
146
Fragment#
MS-160-1
weight
3.02g
dimensions
After Show price
$
3,800.00
147
MS-160-2
1.08 g
20x14x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$ 1,575.00
$
1,335.00
148
MS-160-3
1.56 g
15x15x3 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$ 2,200.00
$
1,870.00
151
MS-160-6
0.16 g
8x6x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
300.00
$
255.00
152
MS-160-7
0.16 g
9x4x1 mm
Ureilite, coarse-grained
$
300.00
$
255.00
One Expert’s opinion regarding Almahata Sitta:
Shortly after Siegfried Haberer had secured the first samples of Almahata Sitta / Asteroid 2008 TC3, I
had the opportunity to inspect several samples with Siegfried and with Dr. Jürgen Otto, a seasoned
meteoriticist from Freiburg, Germany. It soon became obvious that the recovered material was pretty
heterogenous, with some samples representing the anomalous coarse-grained and porous ureilite
described by Jenniskens et al. However, there were also samples which showed a much more finegrained and well-consolidated ureilitic texture, and other samples that didn't look like an ureilite at all.
I remember that I was taken aback when I inspected a slice which looked like a light-colored, ultra-fresh
equilibrated chondrite. If it wasn't for the fact that some samples had shown more than one of these
lithologies I would have thought that we were looking at different unrelated meteorite finds. Could it be
that this unusual polymict ureilite was actually that polymict? I had never seen anything that weird! Both
me and Dr. Otto urged Siegfried to have his samples further studied, and I'm more than glad that he did.
Now if you look at Dr. Bischoff's findings in the following abstract you will find out why. Almahata Sitta is
not only special because it is the first predicted meteorite fall, and it's not only extraordinary because it
represents an anomalous member of a rare class of achondrites. In fact, it's nature seems to be much
more complicated than that: it seems to represent a fall comprised out of several meteorite types,
including different ureilitic lithologies, E chondrites, ordinary chondrites, plus a so far unknown type of
unequilibrated chondrite. How can that be?
Just think of regolith breccias such as howardites or some polymict eucrites. Some contain clasts of
carbonaceous chondrites, and other exotic inclusions. The surface areas of meteorite parent bodies such as our own Moon - are constantly bombarded by meteorite impacts, with meteoritic material of other
types that gets mixed with the original material of the parent body to form a surface regolith, a polymict
layer of heterogenous material which can contain all kinds of stuff. Almahata Sitta / Asteroid 2008 TC3
seems to represent such a case, a real smorgasbord of different meteorite types. That's at least my take
at this moment as I have no other explanation as to why a polymict asteroid such as 2008 TC3 came into
existence in the first place.
In any case, Almahata Sitta and it's various lithologies do represent a real bonanza, a cast of fortune as
they allow us to re-think what we all believe to know about meteorites and meteorite parent bodies. The
possible implications are vast and manifold: one thought that came to my mind immediately, were the
many desert strewnfields that we had searched in the past. On several occasions we found several
different types of meteorites in more or less the same place - something that was easily explained by
overlapping strewnfields of different meteorite falls. Or maybe not? The case of Alamahata Sitta clearly
shows us that this is only one explanation that might be true for the majority of strewnfields, falls and
finds, but it also provides us with a weird exception: with the possibility that different meteorite types
might arrive with the same fall! This is extraordinary and thought-provoking! I'm looking forward to future
studies on Almahata Sitta which might help to solve all these mysteries, and I hope that it will provide us
with more answers than with questions.
Norbert Classen
President of IMCA Inc.
www.Meteoris.de
ABSTRACT:
ASTEROID 2008 TC3 – ALMAHATA SITTA: NOT ONLY A UREILITIC METEORITE, BUT A BRECCIA
CONTAINING MANY DIFFERENT ACHONDRITIC AND CHONDRITIC LITHOLOGIES. A. Bischoff1, M.
Horstmann1, M. Laubenstein2, and S. Haberer3. 1Institut für Planetologie, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, D-48149
Münster, Germany (e-mail: bischoa@uni-muenster.de), 2Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I.N.F.N., I-67010
Assergi (AQ), Italy, 3Haberer-Meteorites, Ruhbankweg 15, D-79111 Freiburg, Germany (e-mail:
siegfried@haberermeteorite.de).
Introduction:
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was the first asteroid detected in space and impacting the Earth in the Nubian Desert of
northern Sudan October 7, 2008. Hundreds of mostly small fragments were recovered. The meteorite called
Almahata Sitta was classified as a polymict ureilite [1]. We have studied 31 small pieces from different fragments
collected in the Almahata Sitta strewn field and found a large number of different lithologies. Since all are extremely
fresh and unweathered we are convinced that most, if not all belong to the Almahata Sitta meteorite fall.
Results:
Cosmogenic radioisotopes: Cosmogenic isotopes were measured by means of -ray spectroscopy in two chondritic
fragments (MS-D and MS-CH) of the Almahata Sitta strewn field. The detection of 46Sc (half life: 83.8d) in MS-CH,
of 54Mn (half life: 312.2d) and 57Co (half life: 271.8d) in both samples clearly indicates that these fragments result
from a very recent meteorite fall consistent with the Almahata Sitta fall 14 months ago.
Mineralogy: The mineralogy and texture of all fragments were studied by light and electron optical microscopy. A
JEOL 6610-LV electron microscope was used to resolve the fine-grained textures and to analyze the mineral
constituents using the EDS attached (INCA; Oxford Instruments). The fragments can be characterized as follows.
Details on some fragments are also given by Horstmann and Bischoff [2]. Please note that the following statistic
may not be representative of the real distribution of collected fragments:
7 ultra-fine-grained ureilites: These fragments are mineralogically similar to those described by Jenniskens et al.
[1], but vary in mineral composition from fragment to fragment. Some have a mean olivine composition of ~Fa12
(e.g., MS-1, MS-152) whereas others can have mean olivine compositions between ~Fa3 (e.g., MS-154) and ~Fa18
(e.g., MS-161). One fragment mainly having olivine of Fa12-14 includes a highly reduced clast with ~Fa1 olivine (Fig.
1a).
10 coarse-grained ureilites: Based on texture and mineral compositions these ureilitic fragments belong to at least
five different lithologies of the parent body. (Figs. 1b-d).
10 enstatite chondrites: Due to differences in texture, mineralogy, and mineral compositions these fragments
represent at least six different enstatite chondrites (EH3 (MS-14), EL3/4 (MS-17), EL6 breccia (MS-D), EH5, shockdarkened EH4/5 (MS-13) chondrites etc.).
2 H-group ordinary chondrites: The H5 (MS-151) and H5/6 (MS-11) chondrites have different compositions of
olivine and pyroxene (~Fs17.5; ~Fa20.5 and ~Fs14; ~Fa16.5, respectively).
1 unique chondrite (MS-CH): This is a type 3.8±0.1 chondrite with a chondrule/matrix ratio of about 1.5 (Fig. 1f).
Olivine is mainly Fa35-37. Since the rock has a considerable abundance of mainly Ni-rich metal (Ni: ~38.5 wt%; Co:
~2 wt%) a relationship to CK- and R-chondrites can be ruled out (see [2] for details).
1 sulfide-metal assemblage: One fragment (MS-158) is dominated by a sulfide-metal assemblage (Fig. 1e) having
an area of fine-grained ureilitic lithology attached. Highly reduced olivine is found in silicate inclusions within the
sulfide-metal intergrowth.
Discussion: We are convinced that most, if not all different lithologies belong to the Almahata Sitta meteorite fall.
The main reasons are: (a) detection of the short and medium short lived cosmogenic nuclides 46Sc, 57Co, and 54Mn.
(b) Preliminary studies show that at least two fragments contain two different lithologies. (c) Among the fragments
at least 6 different E chondrite lithologies were detected. Enstatite chondrites are relatively rare and such a high
number of fresh Echondrite meteorite falls in just one small area is unrealistic. (d) The discovery of several new
unique meteorite fragments (having so far unknown textures and mineralogy) in a small area is only conceivable
with a break-up of a polymict asteroid.
The study of breccias is extremely important to reveal information on the evolution of asteroidal parent bodies [3].
Thus, after the polymict breccia Kaidun [4] Almahata Sitta is a new extraordinary breccia for future studies.
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was classified as a F-class asteroid, although ureilites were initially thought to derive from Sclass asteroids [1]. Based on these findings the reflectance spectrum of asteroid 2008 TC3 has to be evaluated in a
new light.
Figure 1: Photomicrographs in transmitted (crossed polarizers; (a)-(d), (f)) and reflected (e) light: (a) Fragment MS152 is a fine-grained, ureilitic object containing a reduced clast; Figs. (b)-(d) show some coarsegrained ureilites with
different textures: (b) MS-153; (c) MS-160; (d) MS-171; (e) the sulfide-metal portion of fragment MS-158 includes
highly reduced olivines in the silicate-rich areas (grey) and holes (black); (f) the unique chondrite fragment MS-CH.
References:
[1] Jenniskens P. et al. (2009) Nature, 458, 485-488. [2] Horstmann M. and Bischoff A. (2010) LPSC 41, this issue.
[3] Bischoff et al. (2006) MESS II, 679-712, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson. [4] Zolensky M. and Ivanov A. (2003) Chem.
Erde 63, 185-246.
SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service
Title:
Authors:
Extraterrestrial Amino Acids in the Almahata Sitta Meteorite
Callahan, Michael; Aubrey, A.; Bada, J. L.; Dworkin, J. P.; Elsila, J. E.;
Glavin, D. P.; Parker, E.; Jenniskens, P.
Affiliation:
AA(NASA/ORAU), AB(NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), AC(Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, UCSD), AD(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), AE(NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center), AF(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center),
AG(Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD), AH(SETI Institute, Carl Sagan
Center)
Publication:
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #9.09
Publication Date:
09/2009
Origin:
AAS
Bibliographic Code: 2009DPS....41.0909C
Abstract
The recovery of meteorite fragments from the 2008 TC3 asteroid impact, collectively named Almahata
Sitta, revealed a rare, anomalous polymict ureilite containing large carbonaceous grains (Jenniskens et
al. 2009). Here we report the first amino acid analysis of a meteorite from an F-type asteroid as part of
the Almahata Sitta meteorite sample analysis consortium. A single fragment (piece #4, 1.2 grams) was
crushed to a powder, and separate 0.1 g aliquots of the same meteorite were carried through identical
hot-water extraction, acid hydrolysis and desalting procedures at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The o-phthaldialdehyde/N-acetyl-L-cysteine amino acid
derivatives in the extracts were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with UV
fluorescence detection and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Analyses of the meteorite extracts revealed
a complex distribution of two- to six-carbon aliphatic amino acids with abundances ranging from 0.5 to 69
parts-per-billion (ppb). Glycine was the most abundant amino acid detected, however, since this protein
amino acid is a common terrestrial contaminant, we are currently unable to rule out at least a partial
terrestrial source. However, the D/L ratio of alanine in the meteorite was racemic, suggesting that very
little terrestrial amino acid contamination. Several non-protein amino acids that are rare in the biosphere
were also identified in the meteorite above background levels including D,L-4-amino-2-methybutyric acid
(65 ± 8 ppb), D-isovaline (1.3 ± 0.1 ppb), L-isovaline (1.4 ± 0.1 ppb), and α-aminoisobutryic acid (7.1 ±
5.8 ppb). The abundance of isovaline and AIB are 1000 times lower than the abundances found in the
CM2 meteorite Murchison while D,L-4-amino-2-methybutyric acid is similar. The very low amino acid
abundances and the presence of several amino acid decomposition products including methylamine,
ethylamine, and isopropylamine are consistent with extensive thermal alteration of organic compounds
on the parent asteroid.