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, like the desert of Northwest Africa. Here, hundreds of meteorites have been found, among them the NWA 13951 lunar meteorite.

Lunar meteorites like NWA 13951 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 NWA 13951, analysis of its chemical makeup leads scientists to believe the material originated in the highlands on the far side of the Moon.

This specimen is a dust sample from the lunar meteorite NWA 13951, first identified in Mauritania in 2021. NWA 13951 is a lunar feldspathic breccia, suggesting its origin point lies somewhere in the highlands, an area largely unexplored by the Apollo missions and thus ripe for research. Through meteorites like this, scientists can speculate on the geology of our celestial neighbor.

NWA 13951 is also known as the “Starry Night” meteorite. When cut open to examine its composition, the material exhibits a unique dark matrix with beautiful gray and white grains of plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine, along with tiny iron-nickel inclusions. These mineral patterns call to mind an image of a star-filled night sky, reminding us of its incredible origin.

The material comes sealed in resin and affixed to an informational card that also serves as certificate of authenticity.

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.

As of 2023, only 649 of the over 80,000 known meteorite finds have been classified as Lunar meteorites. This makes them incredibly rare, with only 0.80% of known meteorites having originated from the Moon. Some estimates put the total amount of Lunar material ejected each year at about one billion grams, but a mere fraction of that actually falls to Earth, where it may be burnt up in the atmosphere or simply go undiscovered.

The first confirmed Lunar meteorite was Allan Hills A81005, found in Antarctica in 1982. A81005 was sent to the Smithsonian Institution where it was identified as an anorthosite, an igneous rock made up primarily of calcium- rich plagioclase, the same composition as the Moon rocks from the Apollo program. A find from a 1979 expedition, Yamato 791197, was also confirmed to be from the Moon.

Lunar meteorites like NWA 13951 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.