[meteorite-list] Its official! NWA 6291 "The King of Angrites" for sale - AD

From: Jason Utas <meteoritekid_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:13:36 -0700
Message-ID: <AANLkTinQuvkCkOrK0qAJa7LtHn0cXmIn0j9BlG8XpAlW_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hello Greg, All,
I managed to turn up these pages:

http://www.meteoritestudies.com/protected_DORBIGNY.HTM

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/nwa-2934-angrite-meteorite-possible-nwa-2999-3164-1

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2001/pdf/1876.pdf

So, NWA 2836, 2999, 3164 (all three supposedly paired), D'Orbigny, and
Asu88 all display similar translucent crystals.

Angrites are some of the rarest material on earth - that should stand
alone. Trying to put one in some way "above" the others doesn't make
much sense to me.

Without getting into this too deeply - researchers have been trying to
find a meteorite from another one of the terrestrial planets (other
than Mars) for decades.
Trying to cram a square peg into a round hole ain't the way to do it.

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1995Metic..30..269L

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1995LPI....26..865L

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20070021589_2007019150.pdf

In my opinion, it's a little much to claim that a meteorite came from
a single parent body based only three main points:
1) Both are depleted in sodium and are highly refractive (so were
other parent bodies that formed in the region).
2) There's an observed feature (corona around a plagioclase crystal)
that may have been formed by tectonic action on its parent body...or
some other form of decompression or change in conditions while
crystallization was taking place...
3) And, yeah, they're from a differentiated body.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1344.pdf

To be frank, the arguments *against* the origins of Angrites being
Mercury are significantly better.
1) They cooled too soon for them to be form Mercury.
2) They have too much iron.
3) The scarping on Mercury isn't present in large enough examples to
explain the features observed in Angrites.

The things that rule a Mercutian origin out for Angrites are much more
basic, sweeping sort of problems. Their general composition and
crystallization ages are *wrong,* based on our understanding of how
things formed in the early solar system and the composition of
Mercury's crust (this is big-picture stuff). And compare that to the
fact that we have two chemical/petrographic features that suggest that
they're from Mercury; the whole differentiated body thing seems kind
of overblown at this point. We now know of *many* ungrouped
achondrites that appear to have come from large differentiated bodies.
 Very circumstantial evidence.

In my opinion, it's like selling pieces of martian meteorites under
the banner of "remains of life may have been found in ALH 84001, so
this meteorite I'm selling you may contain traces of martian life."

I mean, I guess you could claim that...and yet, reputable dealers don't....
I have the feeling that this whole 'Angrites are from Mercury' problem
is getting overlooked a bit because there's no media frenzy of 'LIFE'
surrounding it. Either way, the critical literature seems to carry
*significantly* more weight, from a relatively objective observer's
point of view.

I've heard similar comments from various well-regarded researchers.
Check your May 2008 Meteorite magazines.
Melinda Hutson notes that "Four of the eight arguments given in the
original abstract on NWA 2999 actually argue against Mercury as the
Angrite parent body." In fact, she goes on to repudiate every single
point, relegating them to, at best, circumstantial evidence.

In my opinion, dealers need to stop pushing Angrites as being from
Mercury. They're rare enough to warrant being paid whatever for them
anyways - compare them to NWA 011, Ibitira, etc. But cooler because
we know more about them.
Insubstantial claims regarding their origins need not be made.

Yep, got carried away. Well, they're damn cool and I know more about
them now. Time well spent.

Regards,
Jason

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Greg Catterton
<star_wars_collector at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi to all, I am happy to announce that NWA 6291 is an awesome and very rare angrite.
>
> I have several very nice slices for sale including one of the 4 translucent slices. After extensive research, I have not been able to come across any angrite that has offered translucent crystals and slices like you would find in a pallasite other then this one.
>
> This is likely paired with NWA 2999, but due to its unique appearance, it stands above and beyond 2999 and any of its pairings enough to raise the question of if it was actually paired or not. NWA 2999 and its pairings are also unique to the angrite class, which makes this one even more special!
>
> Then there is the possible Mercury connection... how cool is it that this material is thought to be ejecta from the planet Mercury?
>
> You can see some of the material available for sale here:
> http://www.wanderingstarmeteorites.com/Angrite_Meteorites.php
>
> I also have a very limited amount of thin sections that are very generous is size. Rather then offer a small limited sample for section, I choose to get nice portions that showed the incredible nature of this material at its best.
>
> Samples for sale are from micros up to the 44 gram main mass.
>
> Contact me for price and more photos - I am still offering a discount for research use.
>
> Greg Catterton
> www.wanderingstarmeteorites.com
> IMCA member 4682
> On Ebay: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/wanderingstarmeteorites
> On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WanderingStarMeteorites
>
>
>
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Received on Wed 21 Jul 2010 08:13:36 PM PDT