Laayoune 002 Lunar Meteorite Slice, Feldspathic Breccia, 9.18g, Polished Moon Rock

About this specimen

This is a 9.18 g slice of Laayoune 002, a lunar feldspathic breccia recovered in Western Sahara. The Meteoritical Bulletin Database records the recommended classification as Lunar (feldsp. breccia), the find as January 2022, and the country as Western Sahara. The name was approved on 19 March 2022 and the meteorite was published in Meteoritical Bulletin 111.

One face of the slice is polished and the other is left as an unpolished cut face. It comes in a gem box with a signed Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. certificate of authenticity recording the meteorite name, type, find year, location and weight.

Structure and features

The polished face carries the breccia texture across the slice. The groundmass runs through gray blue, olive and warm brown tones, and it is crossed throughout by a dense network of pale veining that branches across the face. Angular clasts sit in that network at every scale, from pieces large enough to read individually down to fragments that only resolve under magnification, and they range from near white through buff and orange brown to dark inclusions. The macro photographs are of this specimen and show that texture at working distance.

The reverse is an unpolished cut face. It shows the same clasts and veining in a matte finish, with tan and orange staining picked up during the meteorite's time in the desert. The slice is thin in profile, as the edge photograph shows.

The Bulletin writeup describes both recovered stones as lacking fusion crust, with an overall gray color and whitish clasts visible. That describes the outside of the stones. The interior exposed by cutting is considerably more varied than the exterior suggests, which is the usual reason for cutting a breccia in the first place.

The published petrography, carried out by A. Irving at the University of Washington and P. Carpenter at Washington University in St. Louis, records a breccia composed of mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonite and augite, with accessory ilmenite and chromite of variable titanium content and minor secondary barite. The anorthite is highly calcic at An96.1 to An97.7.

The Bulletin records the shock stage as low and the weathering grade as low. For desert-recovered lunar material that combination is worth noting, because it is what keeps the clast boundaries legible rather than blurred by terrestrial alteration.

Discovery and provenance

The Bulletin writeup records that the meteorite was found near Laayoune in January 2022 and purchased from the finder by Aziz Habibi. Two stones were recovered, of 3,680 g and 1,468 g, for a total known weight of 5.15 kg. Recorded coordinates are 27.070 degrees N, 13.202 degrees W, in Saguia el Hamra, Western Sahara. The place of purchase is recorded as Agadir and the work name as AH 709, submitted by A. Irving.

The type specimen is a 20.7 g polished end cut held at the University of Washington, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The Bulletin records the main mass as held by A. Habibi.

Scientific context

Feldspathic breccias sample the lunar highlands, the light colored anorthositic crust that covers most of the Moon and forms the pale regions visible from Earth without a telescope. That crust is understood to have formed by the flotation of plagioclase in a global magma ocean early in lunar history. The very calcic anorthite recorded in this meteorite, at An96.1 to An97.7, is the signature of that process.

A breccia is rock assembled from fragments of older rock, welded together by impact. Every clast on this face is a separate piece of lunar crust that existed before the impact that bound them, so the specimen is a sample of several lunar rocks at once rather than one. That is why the exposed area of a cut matters on this material in a way it does not on a homogeneous stone.

Feldspathic breccias are the most common lunar meteorite type, accounting for a large share of all lunar entries in the Bulletin database. Background on how this material leaves the Moon and reaches Earth is set out in what is a lunar meteorite, and the shape of the wider lunar population is covered in the largest lunar meteorites.

Frequently asked questions

Is this actually material from the Moon?
Yes. Laayoune 002 is a formally classified lunar meteorite with an entry in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database, published in Meteoritical Bulletin 111 and classified by A. Irving and P. Carpenter. Lunar identification rests on mineral chemistry, including the FeO/MnO ratios of olivine and pyroxene recorded in the Bulletin entry, rather than on appearance.

Is the slice polished on both sides?
No. One face is polished. The reverse is an unpolished cut face showing the same breccia texture in a matte finish.

Why is there no fusion crust?
The Bulletin writeup records that both recovered stones lack fusion crust. Crust is thin and is among the first features lost to terrestrial weathering and to the abrasion of a desert surface. Its absence says nothing about authenticity, which rests on the laboratory classification.

What are the whitish clasts?
Fragments of lunar highlands rock. The published petrography records mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonite and augite. The pale material is dominated by calcic anorthite, the plagioclase feldspar that makes up the bright highlands crust.

Is it legal to own a piece of the Moon?
Yes. Lunar meteorites arrived on Earth naturally and can be 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 can you legally buy a moon rock.

Was Laayoune 002 seen to fall?
No. The Bulletin database records it as a find, with a find date of January 2022.

What comes with it?
The slice arrives in a gem box with a signed Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. certificate of authenticity recording the meteorite name, type, find year, location and weight. Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. is IMCA member #3323.

Collector significance

Most lunar material offered to collectors is measured in single grams or fractions of a gram. At 9.18 g this slice presents a broad polished face of the breccia, with the clast population and vein network readable across it, and it arrives ready to display in its gem box.

The material also carries a full published record. The classification, the petrography, the mineral chemistry, the find coordinates, the two recovered masses and the location of the type specimen are all in the Bulletin and can be checked against this listing line by line. That is the difference between a specimen described in adjectives and one measured against the published record.

Offered by Treasure Coast Meteorite Co., IMCA Member #3323, Hobe Sound, Florida. Further lunar material is listed in the lunar meteorite collection. Classification data on this page is reproduced from the Meteoritical Bulletin Database entry for Laayoune 002 and from Meteoritical Bulletin 111, doi:10.1111/maps.13995, maintained by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society and hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute. How that database works is explained in understanding the Meteoritical Bulletin.