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Hello up for sale is Tiglit classified as a rare Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite). This stunningly gorgeous individual weighs 11.022 grams, with rare yellow fusion crust and unique minerals!! This is extremely fresh with almost zero weathering. Exterior is covered with multi-colored (green-orange-brown) fusion crust. Broken surfaces reveal a mild breccia of mm- to cm-sized fractured bright white pyroxene grains, elongate to stubby, permeated and bounded by shock-darken domains. Large pyroxenes include black material as needles or grain inclusions. This meteorite is museum quality, comes with a COA card and nice display case. Thanks for your interest and take care.

POSSIBLE LINK TO PLANET MERCURY

A recent paper proposes that aubrites (a class of similar meteorites like this one), are samples of ancient Mercury, parts of its mantle that were blasted off in a massive collision, removing a third of its mass. Some of the material ended up in the asteroid belt, pushed by the intense solar winds or that epoch, forming the E-type asteroids. And like many other asteroids, various gravitational resonances with Jupiter eventually flung this material to Earth, a time capsule from the formative years of our solar system.

Name: Tiglit

This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.

Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.

Observed fall: Yes, confirmed fall

Year fell: 2021

Country: Morocco

Mass: 2.22 kg

This is 1 of 75 approved meteorites classified as Aubrite.

Tiglit 28.4035278°N, 10.3734444°W

South, Morocco

Confirmed fall: 2021 Dec 9

Classification: Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite)

History: (H. Chennaoui Aoudjehane, FSAC, ATTARIK Foundation, A. Aaronson) On December 9, 2021, around 8:30 pm, many people from southern Morocco reported an important fireball east of Guelmim and northeast of Laayoune moving in a northwest to southeast direction. Two field missions to the fall area were conducted a few days after the fall by A. Aaronson, M. Fouadassi, M. Aoudjehane, L. Zennouri, H. Chennaoui (FSAC and ATTARIK foundation). Pieces of the fall were found close to Tiglit village and Oued Tiglit. Several eyewitnesses were interviewed. Among eyewitnesses was Mr. Ali Boutmoula, a nomad living in a tent exactly in the center of the fall area. At the time of fall he was outside his tent by the river, while his uncle was inside the tent. He saw a greenish light moving from northwest toward southeast (coming from Ouinet Ait Oussa located northwest from his position). He walked for a few " then he heard a large explosion over his head in the valley and the mountains, followed by two or three more explosions after the first one. The last explosion was a high-pitched sound like a bang in a tin bucket. He thought it was thunder. Stones were recovered all around his tent. A second eyewitness Mr. Hmadi Elkebchi was sitting with his family in Oum Laouitgat village. He heard Loud explosion coming from the west followed by three sonic booms, the last one was high pitched like hitting a metal object. He thought it was an earthquake. Mr. Lbaz Brahim is a third eyewitness living in Oum Laouitgat village. While leaving a mosque, he saw a blue colored fireball followed by a green light. He heard a large explosion, then a second and a third one, he reported a metallic sound like hitting tin can. The trajectory he reported was coming from Aouinat Ait Oussa in the northeast heading southwest toward Tiglit. The next day, he went searching for pieces of the meteorite, and all the valley smelled of sulfur. He found one of the largest stones. Mr. Mouloud Rkhaoui and Mr. Mohamed Dghaich, nomad shepherds who were camping about ten km east of Tiglit, heard three sonic booms followed by a whistling. In the morning, they went to the supposed fall area and found some pieces. The day after the fireball report, hundreds of hunters and people from the area went searching for the fall. All hunters reported a strong odor of sulfur in the entire valley. The first pieces were found in the same day near the junction of Oued Tiglit and Guelta Moukiyoud which flow towards Oued Draa. The region is steep with significant relief. Some pieces were found on a small relief called Assafaou which is part of the starting point of Jbel Bani the most important mountain of the Moroccan Anti-Atlas chain. The main mass was found at at 28.404°N, 10.373°W, and the strewn field extends to about 30 km towards the WNW.

Physical characteristics: Six large pieces and many small fragments were recovered. The main mass is a 736 g complete stone, the other large pieces include: 507 g (broken), 310 g (complete), 209 g (complete), 130 g (broken), and 40 g (broken). Exterior is covered with multi-colored (green-orange-brown) fusion crust. Broken surfaces reveal a mild breccia of mm- to cm-sized fractured bright white pyroxene grains, elongate to stubby, permeated and bounded by shock-darken domains. Large pyroxenes include black material as needles or grain inclusions. Samples are fragile and easily broken. Magnetic susceptibility, measured on different stones, ranges from log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg) = 2.7 to log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg) = 3.6 (H. Chennaoui Aoudjehane, FSAC).

Petrography: (A. Ross and C. Agee, UNM) Backscatter electron image maps show that enstatite makes up ~90-95% of this meteorite. Scattered diopside and olivine grains were observed, and only a single albite grain was detected in the microprobe mount. A few aluminous silica polymorph grains were also found. Ubiquitous shock melt pockets and veinlets are present throughout, most of which are silica-rich or albitic, although some are diopsidic in composition, and some have minor amounts of sulfur. Detected sulfides include: troilite, Ti-troilite, Cr-troilite, Mn-troilite, ferroan alabandite, ferromagnesian alabandite, daubreelite, and oldhamite. Metals include kamacite and taenite; Si was below detection limits in both metals. Rare schreibersite was observed. Vesicular enstatitic fusion crust was observed by BSE, apparent thickness is ~100-300 μm.

Geochemistry: (A. Ross, UNM) Enstatite Fs0.08±0.06Wo0.9±0.3, n=12; diopside Fs0.02±0.01Wo44.7±1.7, n=5; olivine Fa0.04±0.04, n=5; albite Ab95.5±0.6Or3.5±0.2, n=2; troilite Fe=60.8±0.6, Ti=0.55±0.23, Cr=1.04±0.51, S=36.0±0.4 (wt%), n=20; Ti-troilite Ti=4.6±2.3 (wt%), n=3; Cr-troilite Cr=3.6 (wt%); Mn-troilite Mn=4.1 (wt%); ferroan alabandite Mn=43.2±4.2, Fe=16.2±2.8, Mg=1.3±1.1, S=36.8±0.6 (wt%), n=9; ferromagnesian alabandite Fe=14.3±2.6, Mg=8.7±0.6 (wt%), n=2; daubreélite Cr=34.0±1.0, Fe=17.0±0.7, Mn=1.8±0.6, S=43.2±0.4 (wt%) n=12; oldhamite Ca=51.6±2.3, Mn=0.9±0.3, S=42.6±0.2 (wt%), n=7; kamacite Fe=96.3±1.6, Ni=4,7±1.4, Co=0.3±0.2 (wt%), n=10; taenite Fe=50.0±11.0, Ni=47.5±10 (wt%) n=4; fusion crust SiO2=58.0±0.1, Al2O3=0.7±0.1, MgO=37.0±0.4, FeO=1.7±0.2, MnO=0.21±0.01, CaO=1.0±0.2, Na2O=0.26±0.04 (wt%), n=4.a

Classification: Aubrite, fragmental monomict breccia (after Keil, 1989).

Specimens: 20 g plus a probe mount on deposit at UNM, 16.5 g and a polished mount at UWB. Moroccan Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development holds 20 g, Adam Aaronson holds the main mass of 736 g as well as pieces of 507 g, 209 g, 130 g, 40 g, and other smaller fragments totaling 1702 g; 170 g with WangZ.

Bibliography:

Keil K. (1989) Enstatite meteorites and their parent bodies. Meteoritics 24, 195–208. (link)

Data from:

MB111

Table 0

Line 0:

State/Prov/County:South

Date:2021 Dec 9

Latitude:28.4035278°N

Longitude:10.3734444°W

Mass (g):2216

Pieces:6

Class:Aubrite

Shock stage:high

Weathering grade:low

Fayalite (mol%):0.04±0.04

Ferrosilite (mol%):0.08±0.06

Wollastonite (mol%):0.9±0.3

Classifier:C. Agee, UNM, H. Chennaoui Aoudjehane, FSAC

Type spec mass (g):36.5

Type spec location:UNM, UWB

Main mass:Aaronson

Finder:See History section

Comments:Submitted by C. Agee, UNM

Steve Jurvetson says:

OK, so what supports this hypothesis? First, isotope analysis shows the aubrites left their parent body 4.563 billion years ago (20 million years before Earth formed). Our solar system is 4.567 billion years old.

We also know it was a crazy violent time back then. Entire planets were flung out of our solar system to drift away in cold, dead space. A planet the size of Mars smashed into Earth and ejected enough material to form our moon. Mercury came out of this rock fight looking very strange; it is very dense with a meager mantle compared to its heavy iron core. The aubrites might shed light on the formative years.

“They seem to match scientific models of conditions on the planet Mercury in earlier days of the solar system. We have often said that aubrites are very good analogues for Mercury.” — Dr. Camille Cartier, a planetary scientist at the University of Lorraine in France in the NYT. “Data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 supports similarities between Mercury’s composition and aubrites. ‘I think aubrites are the shallowest portions of the mantle of a large proto-Mercury,’ Dr. Cartier said. ‘This could resolve the origin of Mercury.’”

The BepiColombo mission is on its way to Mercury now and will try to test the hypothesis by measuring the planet’s nickel at the surface. If confirmatory, a meteoriticist colleague here on FB summarized: “aubrites may suddenly be promoted from an oddity into some of the most remarkable meteorites ever collected — pieces of the solar system’s innermost world.”

Now, of the aubrites, this 2.4kg aubrite pegmatite is quite unique. It does not look like any other meteorite I have seen. It was found this year in Mali, and will be called Wad Alhath. It is almost entirely enstatite — a mineral common to the early stages of crystalline silicate formation in space. It’s one of the few silicate minerals observed outside the Solar System, particularly around evolved stars and planetary nebulae such as NGC 6302. Pegmatite is the crystal form, an orthorhombic and centrosymmtric cluster of crystals.

This aubrite has the highest concentration of enstatite (98%) and lowest iron (undetectable) of any aubrite. It makes for a beautiful enigma.

Here are some more technical details on the Mercury hypothesis from the scientific paper (https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/1963.pdf):

“Large proto-Mercury models match AuPB’s [Aubrite Parent Body, the place it came from] inferred characteristics: Aubrites share similar exotic mineralogies with Mercury’s lavas and are therefore regarded as potential analogues to Mercury’s crust."

"A long-standing idea holds that proto-Mercury once possessed a larger silicate mantle that was removed by an early giant impact(s). N-body numerical simulations of solar system formation systematically predict bigger Mercury analogues, with 0.2 to 0.6 Earth masses. All these models are consistent with P recorded by Ni and Co Dmetal/silicate in the AuPB. Ni and Co abundances in aubrites support an AuPB with a mass of 0.3 to 0.8 Earth mass”

• E-type asteroids as the secondary aubrite parent body: “E-type asteroids are rubble pile asteroids with reflectance spectra and low densities consistent with an aubritic composition. They are located in the innermost belt, forming a large proportion of the Hungaria population, and encountered among the Apollo near-Earth asteroid group. Their orbits are consistent with the fall dates and the long cosmic ray exposure ages of aubrites, supporting the idea that they are the immediate source body of these meteorites. E-type asteroids represent a total mass of ~1.46*1018kg, which represents only a few ppm of the material that would be stripped out by a giant impact on a large proto-Mercury. The age of aubrites coincides with an early epoch during which the Sun’s wind, magnetic field strength and rotation rate each greatly exceeded their present-day value. We propose that following a giant impact, this early wind would have provided sufficient drag upon ejected debris to remove them from Mercury-crossing trajectories and generated a tailwind upon debris, propelling them to greater orbital radii”

• Implications for inner solar system early history: “In the scenario of a giant impact occurring onto a large proto-Mercury and sending some small debris up to the Hungaria region, it is likely that large amounts of ejected debris are gravitationally captured by the inner planets during their outward course. Up to 20% of escaped particles could collide with Venus, and about 5% with Earth. If proto-Mercury was 0.3 to 0.8 Earth masses and lost most of its mantle, that would potentially represent ~ 1% to 2.5% Earth mass of aubritic material accreting to the Earth.”

If so, we are not just "made of stars" but a bit of Mercury too.