description NWA 5000 Overview
Northwest Africa 5000, commonly abbreviated NWA 5000, is a lunar meteorite found in Morocco in 2007. The original stone weighed about 11.5 kilograms and consists of feldspathic breccia, a rock assembled from fragments produced by impacts on the Moon's anorthosite-rich crust. Its lunar origin is established through its mineralogy, chemistry, and trapped gases, which correspond to material studied in samples returned from the Moon.
help NWA 5000 FAQ
What type of meteorite is Northwest Africa 5000 (NWA 5000)?
NWA 5000 is a feldspathic breccia lunar meteorite, meaning it is a rock made up of shattered fragments from the Moon's crust. It originated from the Moon's anorthosite-rich highlands and was launched into space by an ancient asteroid impact.
How much did the original NWA 5000 meteorite weigh?
The main mass of NWA 5000 weighed approximately 11.5 kilograms (about 25 pounds) when it was found in Morocco in 2007. This made it one of the largest lunar meteorites ever discovered.
How did a piece of the Moon end up as a meteorite in Morocco?
A massive asteroid impact on the Moon millions of years ago ejected this rock into space, where it eventually fell to Earth. It was recovered in 2007 by meteorite hunters in the Northwest Africa (NWA) strewn fields, a region famous for preserving space rocks.
What does the interior of the NWA 5000 meteorite look like?
When cut and polished, NWA 5000 displays a striking, chaotic mixture of light and dark clasts bound together in a gray matrix. These fragments are pieces of the ancient lunar crust that were shattered and welded together by impacts on the Moon's surface.
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