Aletai Meteorite Sphere

Aletai is a member of one of the smallest subgroups of iron meteorites in the scientific literature, with only sixteen IIIE meteorites on record. Of these, Aletai is one of only two to have anomalous chemical properties, as it contains the highest concentrations of gold in the IIIE group (it should be noted that this is still a fraction of a percent of its chemical profile).

Aletai also contains a relatively large amount of iridium, the second densest element known. Because the abundance of iridium in meteorites is much higher than in the Earth's crust, it was the unusual abundance of iridium present in the 65 million-year-old Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary that inspired the notion that it was a massive meteorite impact that was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The entire mass of Aletai is close to 100 tons, and a 28-ton Aletai specimen is the 5^th largest single meteorite on Earth. The strewn field was so vast — 430 kilometers in length — that for some time different specimens from this meteorite shower had different names (Armanty, Xinjiang, and Ulasitai). As it has now been determined that each of these meteorites originates from the same event, they have all been renamed Aletai.