This etched Agoudal meteorite slice is cut from the Agoudal iron meteorite, discovered in 2000 in the High Atlas Mountains near the village of Agoudal in Morocco. The meteorite is classified as an IIAB iron meteorite and formed more than 4.5 billion years ago within the metallic core of an ancient differentiated asteroid. After cutting and polishing, the slice was acid etched to reveal the natural internal crystal structure of nickel-iron metal produced by extremely slow cooling in space.
This individual slice weighs 494.97 grams and displays distinct dark veins within the metal. These veins formed along fractures created during ancient impact events on the meteorite’s parent asteroid, where stresses within the metal produced cracks that were later altered by minerals and oxidation. These features, combined with the preserved metallic structure of the meteorite, provide a record of both the asteroid’s slow cooling and the violent collisions that occurred during the early history of the solar system.