A natural fragment of the Laayoune 002 meteorite.
Specimen Name: Laayoune 002
Specimen Type: Lunar (Feldspathic Breccia)
Location of Find: Laayoune, Morocco
Date of Find: 2022
Perfect as a gift! Who wouldn’t want to own a piece of the Moon?
Found near Laayoune, Morocco, in January 2022 and purchased from the finder by Aziz Habibi, Laayoune 002 is classified as a “Lunar” meteorite because it originated from our very own Moon. Its classification as “feldspathic” means that the meteorite contains feldspar, which are aluminosilicate minerals containing varying amounts of potassium, sodium and calcium. the classification of “breccia” means that this meteorite is made from rocks made from fragments of older rocks that have been broken apart and glued back together by impacts on their parent body in this case the moon. This makes Laayoune 002 among the rarest types of space rocks as the stones have to be blasted off the lunar surface by asteroid impacts where they become captured by the earths gravitational field and fall down so we can collect them.
Laayoune 002 is coated by pale reddish-brown terrestrial weathering products on the outside. If you looked at a cross section of the meteorite you would see white to beige clasts in a dark grey, fine-grained matrix. It is composed of angular mineral grains of anorthite, olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonite and augite plus accessory ilmenite, chromite (with variable Ti content) and minor secondary barite.
Our Lunar rock comes in a small plastic casing with foam to protect each fragment. As well as a Specimen Identification Card for you to display at home.
Each of our meteorite fragments is similar to the one shown in the image – however no two fragments are identical.
More information about Laayoune 002 can be found at The Meteoritical Society Website here: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=77253
