A space fragment smaller than a credit card could fetch a high price at Christie’s auction within days.
The item put up for bid was the first recorded meteor fragment to fall from the sky into a wheat field. In some history books and manuscripts, the fall to Earth was the only major world event mentioned in 1492.
“This goes back to a time before there was a scientific consensus that meteorites really existed,” said James Hyslop, the auction house’s director of scientific instruments, globes and natural history. .”
Fragments from the famous Ensisheim meteorite aren’t the first(opens in new tab) Hit the auction block — tiny chips weighing just an ounce have landed at Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s(opens in new tab) Formerly — but remains a popular and interesting item for collectors due to its historical significance and story.
A meteorite pierced the kennel. It is now a collector’s item.
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As of Friday, there have already been over 20 online bids reaching nearly $3,000, with just 4 days left until the auction closes on March 28th. The last time Christie’s had a piece for sale, in 2021, she was a half-ounce heavy sample.(opens in new tab) — it was $15,000.
“This was very much viewed as being sent from God.”
origin of meteorites
Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons of billion-year-old meteor material rains down on Earth every day, but retrieving it is like finding a needle in a haystack. Much of the debris evaporates in the Earth’s atmosphere or falls into the ocean. It covers over 70% of the earth.
Over 60,000 space rocks have been discovered on Earth. Most of them come from asteroids, but a small percentage of about 0.2%.(opens in new tab), according to NASA, come from Mars or the Moon.At least 175 people have been identified(opens in new tab) as originating from Mars.
Most of the famous Ensisheim meteorite remains in the town that fell to Earth in 1492.
Credit: Manfred Schmidt/Getty Images
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The Ensisheim meteorite, known as a regular chondrite, is the most commonly found alien rock on Earth. But in the Middle Ages there were no words to describe such marvels.It will take another 300 years(opens in new tab)After several meteorite sightings in Europe and America in the early 1800s, scientists came to accept that rocks could fall from space.
Weeks after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, a meteorite struck near the town of Ensisheim in Alsace(opens in new tab) in France, according to the Meteorological Society. On November 7, 1492, when a boy looked directly at it, he took the inhabitants to the 280-pound black stone, its complex fusion crust, and the 1-yard-deep hole it had drilled into the ground. I looked at People 100 miles away from the crash site in the Alps heard a boom of fireballs, unlike thunder.
A 17th-century engraving depicting a meteorite falling to Earth.
Credit: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Townspeople swiped the rock mass, believing it to be a good luck charm, before city leaders banned the vandalism. I interpreted it as a sign of God’s declaration of war against France.
Within about a month of the meteorite’s impact, the noted poet Sebastian Brandt wrote about the rock of Ensisheim, describing it as a triangular stone that emerged from storm clouds and burned to the ground. At the time it was called Thunderstone, but he claimed it was marked with a cross.
A form of early journalism, the story was published in a one-sided bulletin and dispersed to surrounding cities. According to planetary geologist girlfriend Ursula B. Marvin’s paper on meteorites published on the occasion of his 500th anniversary, the original text was woodcut in Latin and German, but was translated and pirated. , rumors of a mysterious stone spread.(opens in new tab) in the journal meteorite.
The poet Brandt also applied it to a political context.
Roman Emperor Maximilian I interpreted the events of Ensisheim as a sign of God’s declaration of war against France.
Credit: Getty Images
Maximilian actually won the battle. He acquired his territories and brought back his daughter, who was with Charles VIII, King of France. The fact that this happened shortly after the printing press was introduced in the mid-1400s and was used in wartime propaganda is memorable and unprecedented, says Marvin.
“The stones and explosions were impressive,” she wrote.
Ensisheim meteorite for sale
Maximilian ordered the main part of the rock to be hung in the town’s church, where it remained until 1793, Marvin says, intriguing visitors with Latin inscriptions.(opens in new tab): “Many people talk about this stone, but everyone says something, but not enough.”
A 16th-century woodcut depicts a meteorite falling to Earth.
Credit: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Over the years, many museums and galleries have obtained meteorite fragments, most of which have been sent to the Vatican, Hyslop told Mashable. Some ended up in Paris, while others became the predecessors of the Natural History Museum in London.
For space rocks to be officially cataloged as meteorites, large fragments must be kept in designated natural history museums for preservation. But the London Museum said he replaced part of the mass with newly discovered meteorites from the Moon and Mars 30 years ago, Hyslop said. That’s how private collectors got their hands on the pieces Christie’s sells today.
A portion of the chipped rock, currently weighing about 117 pounds, remains at Ensisheim.
“It’s the kind of meteorite that wouldn’t be so sought after if it had been discovered alone and had 500 years of history behind it,” Hyslop said. “It has such a long lineage.”
