This complete brecciated slice of the Moon is composed of different fragments of rocks and minerals, including signature anorthite, cemented together by lunar regolith and other crushed rock. The cut faces of this stone reveal a galaxy of fragmentary inclusions, the result of the ongoing bombardment of the Moon’s surface by meteorite impacts prior to the collision responsible for launching this rock to Earth. Modern cutting.
161 x 101 x 2 mm. (6⅓x 4 x ⅛ in.) and 114.9 g. (¼ lbs)

Rocks from the Moon are among the rarest substances on Earth, and now offered is a complete slice of one such rock that was blasted off the lunar surface following an asteroid impact. There are less than 350 kg of lunar meteorites known to exist and a significant fraction is controlled by governmental institutions. Moon rocks are identified by specific textural, mineralogical, chemical and isotopic signatures. Many of the common minerals found on Earth’s surface are rare on the Moon and some lunar minerals are unknown on Earth. In addition, Moon rocks contain gases captured from the solar wind with isotope ratios very different from the same gases found on Earth. NWA 12427 is the 12,427th rock recovered in the Northwest African grid of the Sahara Desert to be analyzed and classified. The stone from which this slice is derived is a breccia composed mainly of very fine-grained minerals and a few much larger grains of anorthite (a calcium-aluminum silicate mineral present in most Moon rocks).
The official classification and publication of this meteorite was performed by Dr. Carl Agee, the Director of the Institute of Meteoritics. A copy of the abstract accompanies this offering.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalog note.