The solar system burst into existence roughly 4,568,200,000 years ago. At first, it was a massive disk of dust, ice, and heat which orbited a newly formed sun. Over billions of years, the particles in this disk slowly collided and combined, eventually creating planets and asteroids. Enclosed in this specimen are the earliest known fragments of that event, which fell to Earth inside the Allende meteorite.

On February 8, 1969, this 2.2 ton meteorite exploded over Pueblito de Allende in northern Mexico, scattering debris over an area of 30 miles. The Allende meteorite is the largest known carbonaceous chondrite, filled with ancient mineral inclusions which formed at the birth of the solar system. In 2020, scientists also found the presence of extraterrestrial proteins, the first discovery of its kind.

This specimen is a showcase fragment of the Allende meteorite. This rare material is a one-of-a-kind item, which ships in a black padded jewelry box case along with a certificate of authenticity.

This is an incredibly rare meteorite and the oldest matter currently available in our collection. Several Allende meteorite specimens are available, individually listed by size in the collection below.

Before the planets formed, the solar system was a mix of dust, grains, and ice that orbited the protosun in a disk shape. Over time, this material smashed together, slowly forming planets and asteroids. While the planets grew and changed, asteroids floated around the solar system for billions of years, only occasionally colliding with other objects.

Eventually, some asteroids fell to Earth as meteorites, carrying within them elements left over from the crucible of the early solar system from over four and half billion years ago. One such meteorite is the Allende.

On February 8, 1969, a fireball cut across the sky over northern Mexico. The car-sized meteorite broke up over Pueblito de Allende, for which the meteorite was named. The Allende meteorite’s destruction rained pieces of itself over the village and the surrounding area, scattering large rocks and tiny pebbles alike across a massive strewn field of at least 30 miles. Pieces of Allende are still being found to this very day.

The importance of the Allende meteorite can’t be easily overstated, with Allende often referred to as “the best-studied meteorite in history.” NASA was on the ground within two days to collect samples, with the first writings on Allende published just three weeks later. The excitement among the scientists was shared by the local villagers, with children filling candy bags full of the tiny pebbles that Allende had thrown across their village.

The Allende meteorite is the largest carbonaceous chondrite meteorite yet known to science. Carbonaceous chondrites are made up of CAIs, or calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions. These inclusions are composed of minerals that formed as the solar system took shape. As the protoplanetary disk of gas that surrounded the sun began to cool, it condensed into these minerals. This makes the Allende meteorite one of the oldest objects on Earth.

Carbonaceous chondrites are ordered into eight different classifications, with Allende classified under the CV group. In addition to the CAIs, this group generally contains larger chondrules, about 1 millimeter in diameter.

Chondrules are made of silicate minerals and can be glassy or crystalline. It is suggested that they were created by the flash heating and rapid cooling of dust in the early solar system and that the chondrules then gradually accreted together.

The material within a chondrule can be dated back to the birth of our solar system and thought to be the building blocks of our planets.

The Allende meteorite still continues to yield new scientific discoveries. In 2020, scientists discovered proteins of extraterrestrial origin lodged within the rock. Previously, only simple amino acids had been found in meteorites. This discovery in Allende and the Acfer 086 meteorite mark the first time that a more complex protein formation has been found. The presence of iron within the protein chain suggests it’s capable of breaking down H2O when charged with photons, a process that under the right circumstances could generate basic life.

This presence of a protein chain within the meteorite is a revolutionary discovery. The material within Allende is millions of years older than the oldest known life forms on Earth, lending credence to the theory that life didn’t originate on Earth, rather it arrived here encased within falling meteorites. For now, it remains a point of speculation, but this discovery of a small protein chain within the Allende meteorite challenges basic assumptions we hold about the origin of life on this planet.