Lunar Meteorite NWA14685

NEW

This rock was once a piece of the moon.

Lunar meteorites are rocks that originated on the moon that were launched into outer space and eventually collided with Earth.

At some point within the last 20 million years, this rock was a piece of the lunar surface. At some point, an asteroid struck nearby and the impact energy formed a crater by ejecting material—including this rock—into outer space.

Physicists have calculated that the formation of lunar craters as small as 450 m across (about 1/4 mi) can eject material with enough energy to exceed the Moon's escape velocity.

Lunar meteorites were unknown until 1982, when a meteorite from Antarctica was found to have a vastly different composition than all other known meteorites. However, it closely resembled rock samples returned during the Apollo program.

Since then, only a few hundred lunar meteorites have been discovered, and so far all have been discovered in barren desert regions. Only about 1 in 1,000 meteorites discovered are lunar in origin.

Lunar meteorites are currently the only way a civilian can own a piece of the moon.

That's right, all those "moon rocks" for sale online that claim to be samples returned from the Apollo missions, those are fakes. The Apollo samples cost billions to acquire, so they are carefully cataloged and, although they are occasionally loaned out for display in museums or other places of importance, the US government maintains ownership of them.

Includes a 50 mg piece in an acrylic display case with geochemical details and an individually numbered certificate of authenticity.