[meteorite-list] Re: lunar meteorites

[Michael Farmer]

This is a little off, Lunar meteorite have also been found in Asia, Oman is 
Asia, not Africa.
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "AL Mitterling" <almitt at kconline.com>
To: "David Freeman" <dfreeman at fascination.com>
Cc: "Steve Arnold, Chicago!!!" <steve_arnol60120 at yahoo.com>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 11:16 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Re: lunar meteorites


> Hi List,
>
> I put together a list of interesting (to me anyway) Lunar bits of 
> information. Here they are.
>
> --AL Mitterling
>
>
> Lunar Tidbits Of Interest
>
> *The finding of the ALH81005 (lunar meteorite) was an important find and
>  help to establish the existence of lunar meteorites on Earth. It was
>  picked up at the last minute by an antarctic researcher who was
>  trained in recognizing meteorites on the ice as he headed for shelter
>  before a bad storm.
>
> *Lunar Meteorites provide very important science as they sample areas that 
> the Apollo missions didn't get to from other areas of the Moon. Some areas 
> are not real safe to land on or near due to the rugged terrain. By impacts 
> we sample some of those areas. Lunar meteorites compliment the Apollo 
> material that is out there for continued science.
>
>
> *Apollo Missions brought back 382 kg of rock, soil and samples. A total of 
> 12 kg (I have heard 17 kg) of lunar Meteorites have been found. One of the 
> largest is DAG 400 which weighs a bit over 3lbs. Soviets brought back 300 
> grams of material.
>
> *The average lunar meteorite specimen weighs 197.02 gm.
>
> *Lunar Meteorites have been found on three continents. (Antarctica, 
> Australia, Africa). No doubt they exist in other places but due to the 
> "look" of regular terrestrial rocks often get overlooked.
>
> Lunar Meteorites reach the Earth by impactors on the Moon which cause 
> lunar material to be ejected. Some of that material falls back on the 
> Moon, Some escapes the Earth/Moon system and a percentage falls to the 
> Earth. Sadly 3/4 of them fall into the oceans. There are 20 or less impact 
> events that have provided the lunar specimens so far found (32).
>
> * Lunar escape velocity is 1.48 miles per second, only a few times the 
> muzzle velocity of a rifle. Some ejected material becomes captured by the 
> Earth’s gravitational field and lands on Earth within a few hundred 
> thousands of years or even shorter. Other ejected material, however, 
> assumes an orbit around the Sun. Some of that material may eventually 
> strike Earth. This can take a long time. Lunar meteorites 
> Yamato-82192/82193/86032 and Dhofar 025 remained in space for 10-20 
> million years before finally landing on Earth.
>
>
> *Lunar Meteorites tend to be broken from repeated impacts and are 
> breccias. Also impacts cause surrounding materials to fly with hyper 
> velocities and become embedded in lunar surface rocks.
> This is a distinguishing characteristic of Lunar Meteorites.
>
> *Of the 22,507 meteorites listed in the Catalog of meteorites only .08% 
> are lunar.
>
> Sources: Washington University at St. Louis
>
> --AL
>
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