Mars Rock on Card

Hold a piece of the universe in your hand! 

Mars Rock: A piece of the Mars meteorite NWA 12269 (Shergottite)

Specimen size approx. 2 mg

Northwest Africa 12269 (NWA 12269)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: July 2018

Classification: Martian meteorite (Shergottite)

History: Purchased in Ouarzazate, Morocco by Mohamed Aid in July 2018.

Petrography: Relatively fine grained with intersertal texture. Composed predominantly of zoned clinopyroxene and maskelynite (some exhibiting a curved, narrow lath-like habit) with accessory fine grained intergrowths of hedenbergite+fayalite+silica, Fe-Ti oxides, merrillite and pyrrhotite.

Geochemistry: Subcalcic augite (Fs24.8-41.8Wo31.4-24.3, FeO/MnO = 30-33, N = 3), ferropigeonite (Fs66.9-73.0Wo16.6-16.5, FeO/MnO = 41-43, N = 2), maskelynite (An51.9-53.1Or1.3-1.2, N = 2).

Classification: Martian (shergottite, fine-intersertal)

As of April 2019, 266 meteorites have been identified as Martian, out of over 61,000 known meteorites. These meteorites are thought to be from Mars because they have elemental and isotopic compositions that are similar to rocks and atmosphere gases analyzed by spacecraft on Mars. Wikipedia