Northwest Africa 8576

Ordinary chondrite, LL3.00
Found in Morocco in 2014

NWA 8576 was found in 2014, purchased from a meteorite hunter in Morocco. Classified as an LL3.00, NWA 8576 is a rather rare ordinary chondrite. LL-type chondrites contain the largest chondrules of the ordinary chondrites group. The parent body of these space rocks is not known, but believed to possibly be 433 Eros and 8 Flora, or the Flora asteroid family as a whole.

Some research indicates that L chondrite meteorite may have had their origin in the Ordovician meteor event, which occurred about 467.5 million years ago. Scientists theorize that during this event, fragments from the L chondrite parent body, believed to have been destroyed about 468 million years ago, that had made it into Earth-crossing orbits rained down on Earth. Some sources theorize that this event may have contributed to, or even instigated, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, one of the greatest evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth; it spanned the entire globe and saw vast increases in the variety of types of creatures that inhabited this planet.