A Cut and Polished Section of the Quintessential Lunar Br🌳ecia, NWA 12691

A Piece of the Moon, Lunar feldspathic breccia, The Sahara Desert, Northwest Africa

2 x 1.5&nbs🔯p;x 0.66 in. (51 x 37 x 16 mm). Weight: 1.5 oz (43.58 grams)

This is a sample of a lunar meteorite, a piece of the Moon ejected off the lunar surface following an asteroid impact. Lunar specimens are identif𝓀ied by specific geological, mineralog🐈ical, chemical, and radiation signatures. Many of the common minerals found on Earth’s surface are rare on the Moon, and lunar rocks contain gases originating from the solar wind with isotope ratios that are very different than the same gases found on Earth. Some lunar samples returned to Earth by the Apollo mission astronauts are closely similar to suspected lunar meteorites, and this is one such example.

The four cut faces of this meteorite reveal abundant signature anorthosite suspended in lunar regolith. And because this spec😼imen was launched into an Earth-crossing orbit and landed in North Africa, the top, sienna-hued, textured exterior🅠 is the result of chemical bonding between the lunar sample and the Sahara Desert.

NWA 12691 was classified by Dr. Anthony Irving, one of the world’s foremost classifiers of planetary material. With les🐠s than 800 kilograms known to exist, Moon parts are among the rarest substances on Earth, with every single bit known able to fit in the trunk space of a standard SUV.

LITERATURE

The official classification of this lunar meteorite appears in the 108th edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin. A copy of the abstract accompanies this offering.