Northwest Africa 8022

Lunar, Feldspathic Breccia
Found in Northwest Africa, 2013
Lunar meteorites are especially intriguing to meteorite professionals. The work Apollo astronauts did in the 1960s and 1970s taught us much of what we know about our nearest celestial neighbor, and lunar meteorites contribute greatly to that knowledge base.

NWA 8022 is particularly interesting as it contains a rare nickel-iron alloy called awaruite, which is silver-white to grey-white in appearance and can be found on Earth in river deposits. It also contains anorthite, which is what the lunar highlands, the light colored material on the Moon’s surface, is mostly made of. These highlands are older than the darker plains on the Moon, and hence display more craters. The lunar highlands are also the site where many volcanic lava tube skylights have been found.