How to identify lunar meteorites

Lunar meteorites are different from anorthite, chromium and silica.

The breccia moon meteorite is rich in calcium feldspar (chemically belonging to calcium aluminosilicate), and the plagioclase moon meteorite is mainly composed of calcium feldspar, but this mineral is very rare on any other planet, and the calcium content of the earth plagioclase is low.

The chromium content of basalt moon meteorite is one order of magnitude higher than that of earth basalt; The concentration of silica with high iron content (15-20%) is lower than that of earth basalt.

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Discovery of moon meteorites

The first moon meteorite, Yamato 79 1 197, was discovered in antarctica in 1979, but its source was not known at that time. The first meteorite confirmed to have originated from the moon was Allan Hills 81981005, which was discovered in Antarctica in 0. At that time, more than 20 other meteorites were also confirmed to have originated from the moon, weighing about 8 kilograms together.

The evidence that meteorites originated from the moon comes from the comparison with the mineralogy, chemical composition and isotopic composition of lunar rocks collected by Apollo program. The first moon meteorite with definite origin was Sayh al Uhaymir (SaU) 169 discovered in Oman in 2002. The meteorite is thought to have been formed by the impact of Lalander crater 340,000 years ago.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Moon Meteorite