The Fukang Meteorite is the name given to a meteorite that has been found in China. Fukang Meteorite belongs to a class of stony-iron meteorite known as Pallasite, which can be identified by fragments of olivine crystals embedded in an iron-nickel matrix.

According to one study, the slices of such a meteorite, when illuminated from the back, are “reminiscent of stained glᴀss windows made in the ancient solar system.”

Discovery of the Fukang Meteorite
The Fukang Meteorite was discovered near the town of Fukang in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in the north-western part of China. The meteorite was found by an anonymous hiker in 2000. This hiker is said to have always sat on a giant rock to have lunch.

He had been curious as to the type of rock, which seemed metallic and had crystals in it, that he had been resting on all this while. Therefore, in 2000, the man decided to break some pieces of the rock off, and had them send to the United States, where it was confirmed that the sample he had sent was from a meteorite.

In February 2005, this specimen made an appearance at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, where it was seen by D. S. Lauretta, a Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona (and also the principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission).

Subsequently, the rest of the Fukang Meteorite (which has a mᴀss of 983 kg (2167 lbs.), excluding the 20kg (44lbs) removed by the anonymous hiker) was studied by the University of Arizona.

The Fukang Meteorite was found to be of a type of stony-iron meteorite known as Pallasite. Stony-iron meteorites are meteorites that are made up of meteoric iron and silicates in an almost equal proportion.

Pallasites may be distinguished by a matrix of meteoric iron, in which silicates, mostly olivine (which is a type of yellow to yellowish-green crystal), are embedded.

This type of meteorite, incidentally, is named after Simon Peter Pallas, a German doctor and naturalist who first described the Krasnojarsk Pallasite in Russia in 1772.

Unknown Origins of the Fukang Meteorite
The exact origins of the Fukang Meteorite, as well as other Pallasites are not entirely clear. Nevertheless, it has been speculated that they originated from the boundary of a melted and differentiated asteroid and its surrounding olivine mantle.

The Fukang Meteorite is thought to have been formed at the birth of the solar system approximately 4.5 billion years ago, when the olivine fragments from its mantle mixed with the molten metal from its core upon impact on earth.

It has been pointed out that Pallasites are an extremely rare type of meteorite. This is due to the fact that most Pallasites do not survive their descent through the Earth’s atmosphere. It has been estimated that less than 1 % of all meteorites are Pallasites.

Therefore, the Fukang Meteorite has often been hailed as one of the greatest meteorite discoveries of the 21st century.

The Fukang Meteorite’s Unrivaled Beauty
Apart from its rarity, the Fukang Meteorite, like other Pallasites, is a very beautiful object to behold. When light is shone on slices of the Fukang Meteorite, it pᴀsses through the olivine crystals, giving the meteorite a breath-taking glow.

Due to this spectacular beauty, there has been a demand amongst collectors for slices of the Fukang Meteorite. The largest chunk of this meteorite, which weighs 419.5 kg (924.8 lbs.), is currently held by an anonymous collector / group of collectors.

In 2008, an attempt was made to sell this portion of the Fukang Meteorite at an auction in Bonham’s in New York for about 2 million USD.

The object, however, did not receive any bidders. Other smaller slices of the meteorite have been sold at auctions and have been distributed around the world.

The University of Arizona’s Southwest Meteorite Laboratory, for example, has a total of 31 kg (68 lbs.) of the Fukang Meteorite in its deposit.