Lunar Meteorites

Lunar meteorites, or lunaites, are meteorites from the Moon. In other words, they are rocks found on Earth that were ejected from the Moon by the impact of an asteroidal meteoroid or possibly a comet. .

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How Did Lunar Meteorites Get Here?

Meteoroids strike the Moon every day. Most rocks ejected from the Moon become captured by the gravitational field of either the Earth or the Sun and go into orbit around these bodies. Over a period of a few years to tens of thousands of years, those orbiting the Earth eventually fall to Earth. Those in orbit around the Sun may also eventually strike the Earth up to a few tens of millions of years after they were launched from the Moon.

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Martian Meteorites

Of the 60,000+ meteorites that have been discovered on Earth, 236 (as of August 2020) have been identified as originating from the planet Mars.

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Click on an image to enlarge and see additional information about the meteorite.