Carbonaceous - CO3
Muslyumov, Tatarskaya, Russia
The current offering is a rare CO3 witnessed fall, one of only five known. It was on September 13, 1937 that this exotic carbonaceous meteorite streaked across the sky alarming the citizenry below. KGB agents were placed on alert and recovered the four largest specimens. The partial slice offered here is from one of the four original masses deaccessioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences to the Macovich Collection. Kainsaz contains an extremely high amount of free iron for a carbonaceous meteorite; it is one of the only carbonaceous chondrites that will stick to a magnet. Kainsaz also contains CAIs (calcium-aluminum inclusions), particles that scientists believe were created prior to the formation of our solar system. The white CAIs seen here were among the first substances to have condensed out of the gaseous nebula from which our solar system originated. In effect, this specimen contains some of the oldest matter mankind can touch: true "stardust." With a host of inclusions and gleaming metal scattered throughout its ebony matrix, and also featuring a long edge of fusion crust, this is a select specimen of an exotic meteorite. Measures 59 x 26 x 3mm (2.25 x 1 x 0.1 inches) and 8.949 grams

Provenance: Macovich Collection and Russian Academy of Sciences