9945

NWA 12691 Lunar Meteorite Button

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD
NWA 12691 Lunar Meteorite Button

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Auction Date:2023 Apr 20 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Moon rock, lunar feldspathic breccia, North West Africa 

Exceedingly similar to the previous lot, this originates from the same NWA 12691 event but it has been fashioned into a paperweight-like curiosity; it was a small sphere that had been subdivided. NWA 12691 is a lunar breccia, which means it contains lot of different fragments of different lunar materials naturally 'cemented' together as a result of the pressure and heat generated from repeated impacts on the lunar surface — with one such impact sending this off into space. The prominent white clasts seen are anorthite, which is very rare on Earth but not on the Moon, which are suspended in dark lunar regolith (i.e., lunar soil comprised of pulverized rocks including some volcanic glass, which melted following an asteroid impact and subsequently hardened). Scientists are readily able to identify Moon rocks by analyzing a rock's texture, mineralogy, chemistry and isotopic signatures. As a nice added reference, this specimen is nearly identical to some of the material returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts.

22 x 29 x 29mm (0.85 x 1 x 1 in.) and 30.25 grams.