Thousands of meteorites fall to the Earth every year, but most are lost, either burning up in the atmosphere or landing and going unnoticed. If a meteorite does survive its landing, it can best be found on a large flat piece of land with uniform terrain, such as Dhofar's vast desert in the southwest of Oman. Hundreds of meteorites specimens have been uncovered here, including Dhofar 908. This meteorite's origins is from a far more barren desert: the lunar surface.

Lunar meteorites like Dhofar 908 were formed from massive impacts to the lunar surface that ejected material out into space, eventually falling to Earth. These samples can tell us a lot about the Moon and how it formed. In the case of Dhofar 908, the meteorite contains crystalized forms of material from the lunar magma ocean that once stretched across the surface of the Moon.

This specimen is a piece of the Dhofar 908 meteorite, found in 2003, a small piece of space rock that's traveled all the way from the Moon. Estimates of its age varies, with oldest estimates placing the meteorite at around 4.4 billion years old.

The specimen comes in a protected in a gem jar inside a glass-topped riker display case. Each specimen comes complete with an informational card that also serves as certificate of authenticity. You can explore more meteorites in the collection below, including other lunar samples and more. These specimens also pair well with our Lunar Highlands Pendant listed below!

Dhofar 908 is a lunar meteorite found in 2003, named for the Dhofar region of southern Oman where it was discovered. It is a feldspathic meteorite with high levels of magnesium—as a breccia, its body appears in a dark grey color, punctuated by pink and white grains. As with many meteorites found in Oman, it has a high degree of weathering, the lunar material embedded with terrestrial minerals like celestine, composed of barium and strontium.

Within Dhofar 908 can be found a base of plagioclase feldspar, along with smaller clasts of olivine and then pyroxene, all crystallized forms of the lunar magma ocean. Because of its relatively lighter density, feldspar naturally rose to the top of the magma, forming the outermost layer of the Moon’s crust and thus often appearing in lunar meteorites.

Like other meteorites of this type, Dhofar 908 preserves a snapshot of the lunar magma ocean that existed on the satellite 4.5 billion years ago, during the Moon’s formation. The anorthosite rock layer that covers the lunar surface is the crystalized remains of these magmatic oceans, and Dhofar 908 is one small piece of evidence of the fiery seas that once covered the Moon.

Over billions of years, the outer layer of the Moon has taken a beating from meteorite impacts of its own. Without an atmosphere like on Earth, these impactors do not burn up or break apart which causes major damage to the surface. The pieces of rock and dust that are scattered after an impact are known as the regolith, and over time this material has covered the entire surface of the moon in a layer of loose sediments. 

Most meteorites from the Moon are made up of the lunar regolith, which can be ejected out of the Moon’s gravitational pull during a particularly strong impact event. This material is then drawn into Earth’s gravity and becomes a meteorite of its own.

Lunar meteorites like Dhofar 908 play an important role in understanding the formation of the Moon and other bodies in our solar system. The minerals found within them suggest the presence of igneous rocks, which is evidence of the Moon’s formation through an impact event on Earth. Such a powerful impactor would have given off enough heat to create lava oceans, which would then cool into the rocks found in meteorites today.