NWA 10415 End Piece

Pieces of the Moon are among the rarest objects on Earth — fewer than 1,200 kilograms are documented. The portion recovered from the Apollo Missions (382 kilograms) is untouchable to the public. As for lunar meteorites, a good deal of that is also unavailable as a result of its residency in the world’s great museums.

Analyzed by Dr. Carl B. Agee and his team at the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, this lunar meteorite (i.e., a piece of the Moon ejected from the lunar surface following an asteroid impact) contains numerous feldspar grains as well as the minerals olivine and pyroxene throughout. The cut side of this end piece of NWA 10415 reveals a scene reminiscent of the sky in Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, the result of shock melt veins present alongside light-colored feldspathic and dark-gray clasts. The reverse features NWA 10415's naturally-weathered external surface, allowing for an appreciation of both the inside and outside of this gorgeous meteorite.