The largest lunar meteorites

A ranked reference to the heaviest known meteorites from the Moon, built directly from the Meteoritical Bulletin Database and rechecked on a fixed schedule.

How this list was built

Every figure below comes from a single query of the Meteoritical Bulletin Database, maintained by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society and hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute: all entries under the classification Lunar meteorites, sorted by mass. That query returned 830 entries carrying a recorded mass. No figure here has been taken from a news report, an auction catalogue, or another dealer.

Three limits are worth stating plainly, because they affect how the numbers should be read.

The database cautions that its masses are not authoritative. They are drawn from the Catalogue of Meteorites, MetBase, and the Bulletin itself, and may be rounded. Qualifying marks in the original sources, such as greater-than, less-than, and approximately, are dropped in the table view. A mass shown as 20 kg may be an approximation in the source.

Paired meteorites are counted separately. Many Northwest African finds are fragments of the same fall, recovered and submitted at different times under different names. The Bulletin records them as distinct meteorites until pairing is established. Any count of lunar meteorites, including the 830 here, is therefore a count of entries rather than a count of separate arrivals at Earth.

Recorded mass is total known weight. It is the mass of the whole meteorite as reported, not the size of any piece held anywhere. That distinction is the most commonly mangled fact in this subject, and it has a section of its own below.

The twenty five largest lunar meteorites

Ranked by recorded total known weight. Meteorite names link to their Bulletin entries.

Northeast Africa 089 is listed under Meteoritical Bulletin 115, the volume currently in preparation. Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. holds material from this meteorite, noted here for disclosure. Its position in the table is set by the Bulletin figure, not by us.

Total known weight is not specimen size

A meteorite ranked near the top of that table is not a stone you could put on a shelf. Ash Shaqqah 002 at 329 kg is a recorded total for the meteorite. It says nothing about whether any single intact piece of that size exists, who holds it, or whether any of it has ever been offered for sale.

Most large lunar meteorites reach the ground already broken, or are recovered as many fragments across a search area, or are cut for classification and distribution soon after purchase. A 60 kg total known weight can represent one mass, or forty pieces, or a mass that was sectioned within months of its find.

For the second question, the useful frame is not the ranking above but the shape of the whole population, and how much of it survives as intact individuals rather than slices and fragments.

The shape of the population

The distribution is steep. The median lunar meteorite in the database has a recorded mass of 229 g, roughly the weight of a baseball. More than a third of all entries fall under 100 g. Only 219 reach a full kilogram, and the ten largest entries account for around 42 percent of all recorded lunar mass between them.

Classification is concentrated in the same way. Feldspathic breccias make up 372 of the 830 entries, reflecting a lunar surface dominated by the anorthositic highlands crust. Anorthosites, melt breccias, and fragmental breccias follow. Basalts, which sample the dark mare plains, number only 33.

Large lunar finds are recent

Of the 43 entries at 10 kg or above, 28 were found in 2020 or later. The population of large lunar meteorites has grown faster in the past six years than in all the decades before it, driven by sustained searching across Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Algeria, and Western Sahara.

This is the single most important thing to understand about any published ranking of lunar meteorites, including this one. It is a moving record, and it has been moving quickly.

Why older published figures no longer hold

Much of what circulates about large lunar meteorites dates from a cluster of auction coverage between 2018 and 2020 and has not been revisited since. Several of those figures were accurate when written and are no longer.

Two examples show the scale of the drift. Northwest Africa 12691 was widely described in 2020 as the fifth largest lunar meteorite known, at 13.5 kg for the offered mass and 103.8 kg total. It now sits second by total known weight, and the meteorite above it carries more than three times its mass. Total lunar material on Earth was reported at that time as under 650 kg. The recorded masses in the current database sum to more than 2,000 kg, subject to the pairing caveat above.

Neither figure was wrong when published. Both are repeated today as though the record had stood still.

Lunar meteorites at Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.

Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. sources at the whole stone level and submits material for classification, rather than buying cut material from intermediaries. That is why our holdings include main masses recorded in the Meteoritical Bulletin, and specimens substantial enough to be measured against the published record rather than described in adjectives.

Disclosed for context, and ranked by the same Bulletin figures used throughout this page. These are total known weights for each meteorite, not the weights of the specimens we hold.

Northwest Africa 18211 is the case where the two questions above converge. The Bulletin records a total known weight of 2,576 g, and the meteorite is a single stone. The mass held after removal of a thick caliche layer and the withdrawal of the type specimen is 2,524 g, weighed on a large capacity scale. It ranks 117th of 830 by Bulletin figure, which places it above roughly 86 percent of all lunar entries, and it remains one stone rather than a total assembled from fragments.

Current inventory is listed in the lunar meteorite collection. Background on how this material reaches Earth and how it is classified is set out in what is a lunar meteorite and the lunar meteorite collector's guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is the largest lunar meteorite ever found?

As recorded in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database in September 2026, Ash Shaqqah 002 from Tubruq, Libya, found in 2024, with a total known weight of 329 kg. It is classified as a lunar troctolitic anorthosite and was published in Meteoritical Bulletin 114. Figures published before 2025 will usually name a different meteorite.

How many lunar meteorites are there?

A query of the database for lunar meteorites returned 830 entries carrying a recorded mass in August 2026. That is a count of database entries, not of separate arrivals at Earth. Fragments of the same fall recovered separately are listed under separate names until pairing is established, so the number of distinct lunar meteorites is lower.

How much lunar material exists on Earth?

The recorded masses of those 830 entries sum to slightly over 2,000 kg. Figures of 650 kg or under 1,000 kg appear widely online and date from published sources of several years ago. Apollo material is separate and is not included, as it was returned by spacecraft rather than arriving as meteorites.

Does a high ranking mean a large piece is available?

No. The rankings on this page use total known weight, which is the mass of the whole meteorite as recorded. Large lunar meteorites are often recovered as multiple fragments, and material is routinely cut for classification and distribution. A high total known weight does not indicate that any large intact piece exists or is available.

Can a private collector own a lunar meteorite?

Yes. Lunar meteorites arrived on Earth naturally and can be legally bought and sold where the source country permits export. Material returned by the Apollo missions is United States government property and cannot be privately owned. This is covered in more detail in can you legally buy a moon rock.

Why are most lunar meteorites small?

Material is launched off the Moon by impacts, and the fragments that reach escape velocity are generally small. Those that survive atmospheric entry are reduced further, and stones that land in deserts weather over time. The result is a population where the median recorded mass is 229 g and more than a third of entries fall under 100 g.

How often is this page updated?

It is rechecked against the Meteoritical Bulletin Database quarterly, and again within thirty days of each new Bulletin volume. The compile date is stated at the top of the page. Because a single find can change the ranking, any figure should be verified against the database directly before being cited.

Sources

Meteoritical Bulletin Database, Meteoritical Society Nomenclature Committee, hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute: lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php. All masses, classifications, find years, and localities on this page are taken from that database. Individual entries are linked from the tables above.

For readers unfamiliar with how the Bulletin works and what its entries record, see understanding the Meteoritical Bulletin. Further reference material is indexed on the learn hub.