NWA 14685 — A Complete Slice of a Lunar Meteorite

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.

This is a complete slice of a lunar meteorite (i.e., a piece of the Moon ejected from the lunar surface following an asteroid impact). Lunar specimens are identified by specific geological, mineralogical, chemical, and radiation signatures. This meteorite reveals fragmental clasts primarily of basaltic composition, with kamacite (an iron-nickel alloy found only in meteorites) and Cr-spinel also present.

NWA 14685 — the 14,685th meteorite to be recovered, analyzed and published in the journal of record, the Meteoritical Bulletin — was analyzed by a team primarily composed of members from the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico.