Stony Meteorites: Planetary
Up until a few years ago this gallery would have been very small. But today the list of meteorites from the Moon and Mars has grown and is growing all the time.” Lunar meteorites” was not even a term in use. The samples returned from the Moon by the Apollo astronauts were not except for two microscopic fragments of rock even meteorites. They were samples of actual moon rock picked up from the lunar surface. The pictures in this gallery are of rocks that have been blasted from the Moon and Mars by asteroid impacts and have wandered in space until they were caught and plunged through a fiery passage to Earth. Determining that they are really from the Moon and Mars is laborious but there is no doubt once the work is done. They are very different from other meteorites inside. But on the outside they have a fusion crust and feature common to other types in our galleries. It is hoped that the recognition and recovery of planetary meteorites will continue so that this gallery can also grow.
