Tūhura Otago Museum natural sciences curator Kane Fleury said it was unlikely to improve your smile.
"That’s because it’s actually a meteorite."
The celestial object was found in a paddock near Tekapo after it entered Earth’s atmosphere and flared in a fireball across Otago skies on March 13, 2024.
Mr Fleury said it was discovered by searchers just eight days after it was tracked by the Fireballs Aotearoa camera network, ending a 20-year gap since the last meteorite recovery in New Zealand.
Meteorites were "extremely rare finds" and this one was only the 10th recovered in New Zealand.
He was delighted the public would now be able to see it up close, when it goes on display at Tūhura Otago Museum next Thursday.
Weighing 810g when it landed, and roughly the size of a fist, the Tekapo meteorite has since been cut to reveal its internal structure.
University of Otago geologist Dr Marshall Palmer said some of the minerals inside could only form in space and he had been analysing it to understand its origins.
"Analysis shows the Tekapo meteorite is an L5 ordinary chondrite and, therefore, was part of a parent asteroid between 100km and 1000km in diameter," he said.
"This group of meteorites usually have Ar-Ar ages of about 470 million years, which is attributed to the fragmentation event of the parent body.
"However, Ar-Ar dating of the Tekapo meteorite is still progressing, as initial results were not clear.
"In any case, this fragment has spent hundreds of millions of years orbiting the sun before eventually intersecting with Earth’s orbit and falling in New Zealand."
Mr Fleury said the discovery was an extraordinary opportunity for the public to see a piece of deep-space history up close.
"It’s an incredible privilege to be able to display such a rare and important bit of space treasure, in a public institution where anyone can see it."
The museum holds two of the 10 meteorites recovered in New Zealand.
He said the other was the Morven meteorite, which was discovered on a South Canterbury farm in 1925. It weighed about 7kg.
