MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Re: There exists earth rocks that looks like moonrocks?

Date: Mon Mar 19 11:00:19 2001
Posted By: Nicolle Zellner, Grad student, Studies of the Origin of Life/Astrobiology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 984393718.As
Message:

I believe you are talking about lunar meteorites, pieces of the Moon that were blasted off by energetic impact events and fell to Earth, sometime in the past 11 million years. They look very much like terrestrial rocks but have very different chemical compositions. In fact, it wasn't until the Apollo astronauts brought back actual pieces of the Moon that meteorite scientists were able to identify these rocks as having a lunar origin.

Lunar meteorites are most often found in deserts or in Antarctica because they look so different from the background of these 2 environments---dark rocks on sandy or white surfaces. They may have a fusion crust (dark), due to frictional heating as they passed through Earth's atmosphere on their way to the surface. However, some meteorites found in the desert may not have a fusion crust, due to the weathering that occurs there (the crust is removed by wind and other terrestrial processes).

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to identify lunar meteorites just by looking at them. Scientists use a spectrometer, which measures their chemical compositions. They then compare these results to those of actual lunar material.

If it's not lunar meteorites you're asking about... There are some Moon rocks that have compositions similar to that of Earth's outer mantle layers, supporting the idea that the Moon was formed after a Mars-sized object collided with Earth 4.52 billion years ago. The debris from the collision eventually combined to form the Moon, while the core of the impactor became the core of the Moon. Again, trying to find mantle-composition rocks on Earth can be very difficult...a class in Geology may be beneficial!


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