NWA 12265 30.8g

Description

Eucrites are rare achondrite (without chondrules) meteorites that belong to the HED class. HED meteorites are thought to have originated within the large asteroid 4 Vesta, making them part of only a tiny handful of meteorites with a specific known origin point — lunar and Martian meteorites being the others. Eucrites are particularly difficult to find in the field as — unlike the vast majority of other meteorites — they contain little or no iron, so will not attract strongly to a magnet. A eucrite impact melt is most likely the result of a giant meteorite crashing into asteroid Vesta and melting target rock into a new form. That in itself is remarkable. As any type of impact melt — even in the abundant chondrite family — is highly unusual. So, here we have an exceptional impact melt from Vesta!