Tatahouine — Diogenite (Vesta) (0.3 grams)

Tatahouine is one of the true classics of meteorite collecting: a witnessed fall from June 27, 1931, when an explosion and brilliant flash over Foum-Tataouine in southern Tunisia woke the entire population — and the French military garrison stationed there.

This is a diogenite — an achondrite made almost entirely of orthopyroxene, believed to originate deep within the crust of the asteroid Vesta, one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt and the presumed parent of the entire HED (howardite-eucrite-diogenite) meteorite clan. Unlike most diogenites, which are composed of small pyroxene grains, Tatahouine is dominated by unusually large single pyroxene crystals — later deformed by shock and re-annealed, a record of violent events on its parent asteroid roughly 4.4 billion years ago, layered atop material that itself is close to 4.5 billion years old.

Tatahouine broke apart high in the atmosphere, so most recovered material is small and carries no fusion crust — the distinctive olive-green stone threaded with dark shock veins is what identifies it. Because of this, and because the total known weight is only around 12 kg from a fall now over 90 years old, well-documented Tatahouine specimens are genuinely scarce.

Classification: Achondrite, Diogenite (Ca-poor orthopyroxenite)
Fell: June 27, 1931, 1:30 AM, near Foum-Tataouine, Tunisia — witnessed fall
Type: HED achondrite, likely sourced from asteroid 4 Vesta