Crafted from the Aletai iron meteorite, these spheres originate from a meteorite discovered in 1898 in the Altay region of Xinjiang, northwest China. The Aletai meteorite is classified as a coarse octahedrite and formed over 4.5 billion years ago within the metallic core of an ancient asteroid. After shaping and polishing, the spheres are acid etched to bring out the Widmanstätten pattern, a naturally occurring crystalline structure of nickel-iron that forms only in space.
Each Aletai meteorite sphere exhibits a unique arrangement of metallic crystal bands across its surface. These patterns developed as the parent asteroid cooled slowly over millions of years. The preserved structure offers a direct look into the materials that formed the early solar system, making these spheres desirable for collectors and educational collections.