Pallasites are the most beautiful meteorites, the remains of a shattered planet from the early days of our solar system, 4.5 billion years ago.
Pallasite meteorites, like this Imilac, formed in the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. They are made up of minerals and metal, remnant materials from the first few million years of the solar system.
They formed when planets were only just coming together. Some were large enough to have a molten core, mantle, and crust, separated by gravity. The pallasite meteorites are from where the planetesimal’s molten metal core and mantle meet, shattered from some colossal impact and allowed to solidify in zero-gravity (they can’t be made on Earth, where our gravity would separate the dense metal from the lighter olivine gemstones).
Imilac came in hot and exploded over the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, possibly in the fourteenth century. It was first found in 1822.
132g slice of Imilac
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