Cook Islands – 2011 – 5 Dollars – The Muonionalusta Meteorite (PROOF)

Description

Metal: Silver .925
Weight: 25 g
Diameter: 38.61 mm
Quality: Antique-finish

Mintage: 2’500 pcs.
Partially coloured. Features an original piece of meteorite.

Meteorite showers, which fall toward the earth, occur daily. However, only some make it to the surface of our planet. Most of them disintegrate in the atmosphere. The discoveries of these meteorites are special in every occasion. By coincidence two boys discovered this special meteorite from outer space in Muonionalusta, Sweden.

The meteorite in question is the fine octahedrite class IVA. On closer inspection the texture of the surface catches ones eye first. The very technical looking structure occurs by an extreme slow cooling down from 1 up to 100 degrees per million years – an unimaginable slow process.

The Widmanstätten patterns, (called also Thomson structures) named after the Austrian natural scientist Alois Widmanstätten (1754 -1849), are only visible when handled with nitric acid. These unique structures cannot b e reproduced artificially and are therefore a clear identifying feature for meteorite iron.

Due to these characteristics this meteorite is predestined to be immortalised on the latest coin edition of Cook Islands.