This is a lunar breccia—a rock composed of different fragments of rocks and minerals cemented together by interstitial impact melt. As a result of its residency on Earth having been brief, it has been spared the effects of exposure to Earth’s elements and is exceedingly fresh. The cut and polished surface features the sought-after contrast between the ground mass and white anorthosite—the oldest rocks on the Moon. As with all lunar feldspathic breccias, the primary minerals are olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonite, augite and anorthite. Also present are rare metallic grains probably derived from chondritic meteorite projectiles. On the reverse, the specimen’s highly textured convex external surface has patches of a clay-like ochre-hued coating of the Sahara Desert. This is a superior example from the Moon.
188 x 127 x 39 mm. (7.33 x 5 x 1.5 in.)

961.9 g. (2.1 lbs.)

Many lunar samples returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts are extremely similar to the lunar breccia now offered—a piece of the Moon that was ejected from the lunar surface into an Earth crossing orbit following the collision of an asteroid. The Moon is among the most exotic substances on Earth. Only 0.5% of all meteorites recovered are lunar in origin; less than 600 kg of meteorites from the Moon are known to exist and a significant percentage of this material is controlled by governmental institutions. Moreover, every gram of the ~380 kg of lunar material returned by Apollo missions are owned by the U.S. government and controlled by NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Lunar specimens are identified by specific geological, mineralogical, chemical and isotopic signatures. Many of the common minerals found on Earth’s surface are rare or absent on the Moon; the minerals comprising the Moon’s crust are limited and readily identifiable. In addition, lunar rocks contain gases originating from the solar wind with isotope ratios that are very different than the same gases found on Earth. Meteorites are typically named after localities or landmarks; in places bereft of such details, such as in the world’s great deserts, meteorites are sequentially named by scientists after the collection area in which they were found. NWA 8641 is the 8,641st meteorite to have been classified and published after having been recovered from the North West African grid of the Sahara Desert. The findings about NWA 8641 have been published in the 103rd edition of the Meteorite Bulletin whose lead author is the world’s most renowned classifier of lunar meteorites, Dr. Anthony Irving.

A slab from this same mass will be on display at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum.

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 catalogue note.