Notable Offering Of The Moon — The End Piece Of Tisserlitine 001 — The Second Largest Piece Of The Moon On Earth

Closing this sale is a much, much larger offering of the Moon than the previous lot. It is the end piece of a lunar meteorite, a rock ejected off the lunar surface following an asteroid impact which then landed on Earth and was subsequently cut to reveal its interior texture. The Moon is identified by specific geological, mineralogical, chemical and radiation signatures. Many of the common minerals found on Earth’s surface are rare on the Moon; in addition, Moon rocks contain gases originating from the solar winds with isotope ratios that are very different than the same gases found on Earth.

In late 2019, several dark stones were discovered in the Tisserlitine Valley, in the northeast corner of Mali, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Timbuktu. Most of these stones were quite small but the biggest — weighing 40.026 kg (88 lbs) — turned out to be the second most massive piece of the Moon on Earth. The largest slices of the Moon originate from this mass, and now offered is the mass's largest endpiece. 

The Moon is among the rarest substances on our planet. Less than 775 kilograms of lunar meteorites are known to exist. All would fit within five large foot lockers and a significant portion of these rocks is controlled by governmental institutions. In addition, not one gram of the 382 kilograms of Moon rocks returned by Apollo astronauts is publicly available.

The vast majority of the Moon’s craters are the result of asteroid impacts which occurred a bit less than a billion years ago. Lunar samples evidence varying degrees of brecciation and melting and this is a novel presentation. While the brecciation seen is archetypal, Tisserlitine’s appearance is rather unique; secondary hydrothermal alteration occurred creating hydrous minerals. Scientists concur the only explanation for this unique appearance is the result of ongoing bombardment of the lunar surface which ejected a fragment into space that happened to land in a hot spring on Earth.

Celebrated cosmochemist, Dr. Anthony Irving, the world’s most renowned classifier of meteorites from the Moon and Mars led the team which provided the analysis of this specimen prior to vetting by a panel of scientists on the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society and the subsequent publication in The Meteoritical Bulletin — the scientific journal of record.

The cut and polished face reveals clasts of anorthite, olivine, pigeonite, augite and orthopyroxene set in a fine-grained matrix. The venting character of Tisserlitine 001 is in evidence, as are tiny flecks of metal which originated from the metallic cores of impacting asteroids — one of numerous bodies that slammed into the Moon creating its craters. The matrix is a palette of grays with white anorthositic clasts — a signature of Lunar material and very rare on Earth — suspended throughout.

The textured convex reverse is much of the same but not rendered with the same resolution as the polished face. Traces of the Sahara are embedded in the matrix from its long desert residency. Accompanied by a custom armature, now offered is a distinguished specimen from the second largest piece of the Moon on Earth.

The official classification of this lunar meteorite appears in the 108^th edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin. A copy of the abstract accompanies this offering

PROVENANCE:

Stifler Collection of Meteorites, Brookline, MA