Parakeldyshite (very rare)

Item Description

Here we have an incredibly rare specimen of Parakeldyshite, named after the Russian mathematician, engineer, and President of the Academy of Sciences, Mstislav Keldysh, who was responsible for the development of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. This sodium zirconium silicate mineral is only found in about a dozen localities on the planet, and the best known examples are from various Russian localities. This piece hosts soft white colored, granular Parakeldyshite (showing a pale yellow fluorescence under SW UV light) associated with dark reddish-brown Kentbrooksite, and green-black narrow prismatic crystals of Aegirine. There are also some grey blocky crystals of Albite on the piece that measure up about 3.5 cm, and fluoresce a red hue under SW UV light. A tiny bit of Sodalite can be seen on the piece which fluoresces orange under SW UV light, and there are some bright green spots that show up as well under SW UV light that are some kind of uranyl according to a similar specimen we found online for comparison. A really cool rarity, that is incredibly hard to find on the market today in any capacity, with a great lineage to the beginning of the global space race in the 1950s.
Ex Colin Manlove Collection.