Pallasites are the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance known, and this is an incomparable example of an Admire pallasite — and one which bears a semblance to how it would appear in space before penetrating Earth’s atmosphere where frictional heating would melt the cꦰrenelated surface now seen.

Representing less than 0.2% of all known meteorites, pallasites are also exceedingly rare and like most, Admire formed at the mantle-core boundary of an asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago. It was here that molten metal from the asteroid’s core mi♔xed with chunks of stony olivine from the mantle which later crystallized. When a catastrophic collision shattered Admire’s parent asteroid roughly 100 million years ago, this event — and perhaps a subsequent nudge — sent what was to become the Admire pallasite on a collision course with Earth. Admire was first discovered when it was struck by a plow outside of the town of Admire in Lyon County, Kansas♏ in 1881. The specimen offered here is a recent recovery.

As a result of their great allure, pallasites are extremely sought-after meteorites but most do not have translucent crystals. In this superlative specimen chunks of extraterrestrial olivine and peridot (gem-quality olivine), ranging in hues from bright apple green to chartreuse, are suspended in its native iron-nickel matrix. A multitude of sockets and chambers are delimited by the extremely strong metallic alloy from the asteroid’s molten core which is dr༺aped in a pewter to platinum hued matrix with burnished accents. For the discriminating collector, multiple orientations fascinate in what is among the finest known specimens of its kind.