Lunar Moon & Mars Rock
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Moon Rock: A piece of the lunar meteorite NWA 4483 Feldspathic granulation impactite
Specimen size approx 7-12 mg
Northwest Africa 4483
Algeria
Find: July 2006
Achondrite (lunar, granulitic breccia)
History: Purchased by Stefan Ralew in July 2006 from a dealer in Erfoud, Morocco.
Physical characteristics: Twelve broken fragments of very fine-grained, pale grey rock with a combined weight of 208 g.
Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Fine grained recrystallized breccia composed of larger plagioclase grains (converted mainly to maskelynite) poikilitically enclosing very small grains (mostly 30–80 μm) of low-Ca pyroxene (some with very fine augite exsolution lamellae), olivine, Ti-chromite, ilmenite, troilite, and metal.
Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa30.9–60.8, FeO/MnO = 88.1–106), plagioclase (An96.2–98Or<0.1), orthopyroxene (Fs14.3Wo2.0, FeO/MnO = 52.6), pigeonite (Fs36.4–75.1Wo6.3–13.5, FeO/MnO = 62.9–66.5).
Classification: Achondrite (lunar, granulitic breccia). Possibly paired with Northwest Africa 3163 (Irving et al. 2006).
Specimens: A total of 20 g and one polished mount are on deposit at UWS. Ralew holds the main mass.
Moon rock or lunar rock is rock that is found on the Earth's Moon including lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, or rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface (and which has then landed on the Earth as meteorites). Wikipedia
Mars Rock: A piece of the Mars meteorite NWA 4766 (Basaltic Shergottite)
Specimen size approx 7-14 mg
Northwest Africa 4766 (NWA 4766)
(Northwest Africa)
Purchased: 2007
Classification: Martian meteorite (Shergottite)
History: The meteorite was purchased from a local meteorite dealer in Tagounite, Morocco.
Physical characteristics: Fifteen grayish fragments partly covered with fusion crust.
Petrography: The meteorite shows a diabasic texture of predominantly up to 2 mm sized pigeonite and augite and equally sized maskelynite grains. Pyroxenes display complex patchy compositional zoning and often contain fine exsolution lamellae. Minor phases include ilmenite often intergrown with titanomagnetite, merrillite, and pyrrhotite. The meteorite is highly shocked and contains abundant shock melt veins and pockets.
Geochemistry: pigeonite: Fs41.7±5.1Wo13.0±2.2 (Fs32.9-50.1Wo9.0-17.7, n=15, FeO/MnO=29-38); augite: Fs25.7±1.9Wo31.7±2.3 (Fs23.8-29.2Wo28.7-35.2, n=12, FeO/MnO=27-33); maskelynite: An53.5±2.0Ab44.5±1.9Or2.0±0.4, n=14
Classification: Martian (diabasic shergottite)
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