No, Not a "brain parasite"!
The Brahin Pallasite meteorite from the Gomel region of Belarus:
(image credit: Steve Jurvetson)
Believed to be 4.2 billion years old, this unique find has a most incredible history. Steve Jurvetson writes:
"It is the result of the violent destruction of what would otherwise have been a planet during the formation of our solar system. It comes from the boundary between the silica rich mantle and the iron-nickel core of a now extinct planet, torn away by a catastrophic impact with another planet or asteroid. A mix of solid stone forming olivine crystals (37% by weight) in suspension in liquid metal (iron-nickel) was flung into space to cool over millions of years in a vacuum and zero gravity, forming this beautiful mixture (which could not be created on Earth).
This is a 3 kg end piece (cut and polished) of the Brahin meteorite fall that was first discovered in 1807 by farmers and sent to the local university scientists. During World War II, German soldiers stole samples in Kiev, and others disappeared in Minsk."
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