Almahata Sitta – AfterTucson 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 $2,950.00 $2500.00
No. 5)MS-28 2.70g 28x26x2mm$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-175Ref# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
20 / MS175 / 0.89 / 20 x 10 x 1.8 mm / Ureilite, coarse-grained / $ 1,300.00 / $ 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# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
49 / MS-168-3 / 9.43 g / 27x25x9 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 10,350.00 / $ 8,300.00
50 / MS-168-4 / 3.73 g / 25x18x7 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 4,620.00 / $ 3,920.00
51 / MS-168-5 / 1.78 g / 25x18x1.4mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 2,700.00 / $ 2,290.00
52 / MS-168-6 / 1.67 g / 25x15x1.5 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 2,590.00 / $ 2,200.00
53 / MS-168-7 / 0.77 g / 15x14x0.8 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,250.00 / $ 1,060.00
54 / MS-168-8 / 1.13 g / 24x15x1 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,620.00 / $ 1,375.00
55 / MS-168-9 / 0.71 g / 20x11x1 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,125.00 / $ 955.00
56 / MS-168-10 / 0.73 g / 16x12x1 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,175.00 / $ 995.00
57 / MS-168-11 / 0.69 g / 15x12x1.2 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,100.00 / $ 935.00
58 / MS-168-12 / 0.74 g / 14x14x1.2mm / 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 / 9x5x0.8 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# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
73 / MS-152-1 / 0.62 g / 17x17x0.8 mm / Ureilite, fine-grained / $ 1,100.00 / $ 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# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
97 / MS-169-3 / 2.70 g / 18x18x4 mm / Ureilite, coarse-grained / $ 3,950.00 / $ 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# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
116 / MS-150-1 / 2.23 g / 16x16x7 mm / EL6? (oldhamite, troilite) / $ 4,175.00 / $ 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) / $ 525.00 / $ 445.00
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
Slices from classified individual MS-160
Ref# / Fragment# / weight / dimensions / Classification / Price $ / After Show price
146 / MS-160-1 / 3.02g / Ureilite, coarse-grained / $ 4,500.00 / $ 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 fine-grained 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.
ABSTRACT:
ASTEROID 2008 TC3 – ALMAHATA SITTA: NOT ONLY A UREILITIC METEORITE, BUT A BRECCIACONTAINING MANY DIFFERENT ACHONDRITIC AND CHONDRITIC LITHOLOGIES. A. Bischoff1,M. Horstmann1, M. Laubenstein2, and S. Haberer3. 1Institut für Planetologie, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, D-48149Münster, Germany (e-mail: ), 2Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I.N.F.N., I-67010Assergi (AQ), Italy, 3Haberer-Meteorites, Ruhbankweg 15, D-79111 Freiburg, Germany (e-mail: ).
Introduction:
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was the first asteroiddetected in space and impacting the Earth in theNubian Desert of northern Sudan October 7, 2008.Hundreds of mostly small fragments were recovered.The meteorite called Almahata Sitta was classified as apolymict ureilite [1]. We have studied 31 small piecesfrom different fragments collected in the AlmahataSitta strewn field and found a large number of differentlithologies. Since all are extremely fresh and unweatheredwe are convinced that most, if not all belong to theAlmahata Sitta meteorite fall.
Results:
Cosmogenic radioisotopes: Cosmogenic isotopeswere measured by means of -ray spectroscopy in twochondritic fragments (MS-D and MS-CH) of the AlmahataSitta strewn field. The detection of 46Sc (halflife: 83.8d) in MS-CH, of 54Mn (half life: 312.2d) and57Co (half life: 271.8d) in both samples clearly indicatesthat these fragments result from a very recentmeteorite fall consistent with the Almahata Sitta fall 14months ago.
Mineralogy: The mineralogy and texture of all fragmentswere studied by light and electron optical microscopy.A JEOL 6610-LV electron microscope wasused to resolve the fine-grained textures and to analyzethe mineral constituents using the EDS attached(INCA; Oxford Instruments). The fragments can becharacterized as follows. Details on some fragmentsare also given by Horstmann and Bischoff [2]. Pleasenote that the following statistic may not be representativeof the real distribution of collected fragments:
7 ultra-fine-grained ureilites: These fragments aremineralogically similar to those described by Jenniskenset al. [1], but vary in mineral composition fromfragment to fragment. Some have a mean olivine compositionof ~Fa12 (e.g., MS-1, MS-152) whereas otherscan have mean olivine compositions between ~Fa3(e.g., MS-154) and ~Fa18 (e.g., MS-161). One fragmentmainly having olivine of Fa12-14 includes a highly reducedclast with ~Fa1 olivine (Fig. 1a).
10 coarse-grained ureilites: Based on texture andmineral compositions these ureilitic fragments belongto 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 fragmentsrepresent at least six different enstatite chondrites(EH3 (MS-14), EL3/4 (MS-17), EL6 breccia(MS-D), EH5, shock-darkened EH4/5 (MS-13) chondritesetc.).
2 H-group ordinary chondrites: The H5 (MS-151)and H5/6 (MS-11) chondrites have different compositionsof olivine and pyroxene (~Fs17.5; ~Fa20.5 and~Fs14; ~Fa16.5, respectively).
1 unique chondrite (MS-CH): This is a type3.8±0.1 chondrite with a chondrule/matrix ratio ofabout 1.5 (Fig. 1f). Olivine is mainly Fa35-37. Since therock has a considerable abundance of mainly Ni-richmetal (Ni: ~38.5 wt%; Co: ~2 wt%) a relationship toCK- 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 lithologyattached. Highly reduced olivine is found in silicateinclusions within the sulfide-metal intergrowth.
Discussion: We are convinced that most, if not alldifferent lithologies belong to the Almahata Sitta meteoritefall. The main reasons are: (a) detection of theshort and medium short lived cosmogenic nuclides46Sc, 57Co, and 54Mn. (b) Preliminary studies show thatat least two fragments contain two different lithologies.(c) Among the fragments at least 6 different E chondritelithologies were detected. Enstatite chondrites arerelatively rare and such a high number of fresh Echondritemeteorite falls in just one small area is unrealistic.(d) The discovery of several new unique meteoritefragments (having so far unknown textures andmineralogy) in a small area is only conceivable with abreak-up of a polymict asteroid.
The study of breccias is extremely important to revealinformation on the evolution of asteroidal parentbodies [3]. Thus, after the polymict breccia Kaidun [4]Almahata Sitta is a new extraordinary breccia for futurestudies.
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was classified as a F-class asteroid,although ureilites were initially thought to derivefrom S-class asteroids [1]. Based on these findingsthe reflectance spectrum of asteroid 2008 TC3 has to beevaluated in a new light.
Figure 1: Photomicrographs in transmitted (crossed polarizers; (a)-(d), (f)) and reflected (e) light: (a) Fragment MS-152 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 ADSAstronomy Abstract Service
Title: / Extraterrestrial Amino Acids in the Almahata Sitta MeteoriteAuthors: / 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(NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenter), AE(NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenter), AF(NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenter), AG(Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD), AH(SETI Institute, CarlSaganCenter)
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.