Two meteorite fragments found in the Russian taiga sold at an auction in New York
'26.08.2020'
Vita Popova
Two pieces of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite were sold at an online auction in New York. It hit the Ussuri taiga on February 12, 1947. The edition writes about it TASS.
The online auction was held on Tuesday 25 August by the auction house Christie's in New York.
One of the debris - a bizarre-shaped iron-nickel meteorite weighing 8,1 kg, covered with dark scale with rare light flashes - went under the hammer for $ 17,5 thousand. Previously, it was on display at the Malkovich Meteorite Collection in New York.
Experts believe that this fragment is part of the outer surface of a meteorite with a total mass of about 100 tons, which collapsed in the atmosphere near the village of Beitsukhe in the Primorsky Territory and fell as an iron rain over an area of about 35 square meters. km.
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The second fragment weighing 1,3 kg is part of the same meteorite. It was sold for $ 13,5 thousand.
Experts suggest that the celestial body, later called the Sikhote-Alin meteorite, broke off from a more massive body that formed 320 billion years ago about 4,5 million years ago. Scientists believe it was located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite collapsed upon entering the atmosphere at an altitude of about 6 km. The sound of the explosion was heard at a distance of 300 km, and a 30-km trail of smoke from particles burned out in the atmosphere remained in the atmosphere for several hours.
The debris that fell to the ground formed about 200 craters. The largest of them had a diameter of 26 meters.
The website of the auction house Christie's reports that the wreckage is "part of the largest meteor shower that has hit the Earth, possibly since the dawn of civilization."
