A SLICE OF MOON ROCK

a small piece of lunar surface, polished on both sides,

2.4cm x 1.6cm (1.21 g).

This attractive piece of the lunar surface, is composed of rock fragments welded together by meteorite impacts (its technical name is feldspathic regolith breccia). The Apollo astronauts collected very similar rocks and although it is illegal for private individuals to own any of these, one can own pieces which found their own way to Earth thanks to meteorite impacts blasting them off the moon. This specimen is a slice of a meteorite found in Tindouf, Algeria, which was purchased in April 2017 from Moroccan dealers. It has been scientifically analysed and given the official code NWA 11273, which can be publically viewed online (see Huidobro, J., Aramendia, J., Arana G. & Madariaga, J. M. 2021. Geochemical characterization of the NWA 11273 lunar meteorite using non-destructive analytical techniques: original, shocked, and alteration mineral phases. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 5(6): 1333-1342). It is a hard glassy material so could be made into an attractive pendant.