Moon rock, lunar feldspathic breccia, North West Africa
Exceedingly similar to the previous lot, this originates from the same NWA 12691 event but it has been fashioned into a paperweight-like curiosity; it was a small sphere that had been subdivided. NWA 12691 is a lunar breccia, which means it contains lot of different fragments of different lunar materials naturally 'cemented' together as a result of the pressure and heat generated from repeated impacts on the lunar surface — with one such impact sending this off into space. The prominent white clasts seen are anorthite, which is very rare on Earth but not on the Moon, which are suspended in dark lunar regolith (i.e., lunar soil comprised of pulverized rocks including some volcanic glass, which melted following an asteroid impact and subsequently hardened). Scientists are readily able to identify Moon rocks by analyzing a rock's texture, mineralogy, chemistry and isotopic signatures. As a nice added reference, this specimen is nearly identical to some of the material returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts.
22 x 29 x 29mm (0.85 x 1 x 1 in.) and 30.25 grams.
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