Complete Slice of NWA 13381

FEATURING THE OLDEST SOLID MATTER IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

An unbelievably striking and colorful meteorite slice that bears quite a resemblance to a llama's head (or is it a Wookiee?), NWA 13381 features both extremely aesthetic and colorful chondrules as well as pristine calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions, the oldest solids in our universe. In fact, it is the dating of these inclusions that has given us our most recent estimate for the age of the Solar System: 4.567 billion years old.

World-renowned geochemist Tony Irving, of the University of Washington, analyzed this meteorite and found that it is one of the least metamorphosed of this rare type of Karoonda-type meteorite, one of the reasons why the chondrules are so pristine and intact. This meteorite bears witness to the beginnings of our universe in one of the most aesthetic ways possible.

REFERENCES:

Meteoritical Bulletin Entry for NWA 13381