New silver coin features piece of real meteorite
Vancouverite’s design honours Canada’s contribution to the science of astronomy
Vancouverite Alexandra Lefort’s passions for painting and planetary science came together when the opportunity presented itself to design the Royal Canadian Mint’s latest silver coin.
Growing up in the small city of Vermelles in Northern France, Lefort would watch the stars from her small telescope, and in turn let her imagination run wild through her illustrations.
Now a research scientist with a PhD study focusing on water forms on Mars, she has designed a coin that uniquely features a chunk of meteorite sourced from a crater field in Argentina, which is said to have made impact about 4,500 years ago.
“These are objects that I’ve been fascinated with since I was a kid,” Lefort said.
In celebration of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s 150th anniversary, 5,500 coins will be minted, each with a unique piece of iron meteorite.
The design is a re-envisionment of the society’s logo. It displays an array of light, each representing different emission spectra for gases found in a cluster of stars known as the Eagle Nebula.
“It’s the type of colours that you’d see from the images received by a Hubble telescope,” she said. “It’s beautiful and at the same time shows the complexities of the universe.”
A prominent display of the Manicouagan crater in Quebec also takes the lower right corner of the coin as homage to Canadian research of meteor dynamics and impact cratering. The top of the coin shows a solar eclipse, to mark the eclipse that was visible to Vancouverites in August 2017.
Lefort has worked on several coins in the past, including one to honour Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut in space, on her mission’s 25th anniversary.
“Each coin is a different concept, but this one was the first time I was asked to make one which would hold a piece of material on it and the first one focused on space objects,” she said.
The coin honours the contributions of the astronomical society and Canadian astronomers alike. In attendance at the unveiling was retired Canadian astronaut Dave Williams.
“What’s really amazing is that Canadian astronomers are some of the most recognized in the world,” Williams said. “They’re among some of the most cited scientifically. We’re at the forefront of it all and have been over the course of the history of Canada.”
Williams said he hopes the coin will allow people to be marvelled by the astronomical work from Canadians.
“Somewhere out there in Canada there may be a 10-year-old growing up, that will one day walk on Mars,” he said.
Lefort, agreed.
“I hope the design is something that will make people look into the sky and learn more about what’s there,” Lefort said. “It’s part of where we come from, and it’s bigger than every day life.”