Howardites
Topic

#The Moon

Lunar meteorites, Apollo samples and how pieces of the Moon reach Earth.

Lessons (6)

Courses (16)

  • Gravitational fields and escapeHow does a rock leave Mars, the Moon or the asteroid Vesta? Newton's law of gravitation and the idea of gravitational potential give the
  • Mass spectrometry and oxygen isotopesMass spectrometers measure isotope ratios to within about ten parts per million. Oxygen's three isotopes then sort meteorites into famil
  • Rocks from the Moon and MarsSeveral hundred meteorites are pieces of the Moon or Mars, thrown off by impacts. This lesson explains how they were identified and what the
  • Adult course: Meteorites from first principlesTwelve lessons for adult learners: where meteorites come from, how falls are tracked and recovered, how they are classified and dated, what
  • Momentum: nudging an asteroidIn 2022 a spacecraft deliberately hit an asteroid moon to change its orbit. Momentum explains how a tiny spacecraft could move a body millio
  • Look up at the skyThe sky is full of things to see. In this lesson you will find out about the Sun, the Moon and the stars.
  • People on the MoonA long time ago, in 1969, astronauts went to the Moon and brought back Moon rocks.
  • Space rocks make holesA very big space rock can hit the ground so hard that it makes a giant round hole. It is called a crater. You can make your own!
  • Key Stage 1: Space rocks for little explorersTen short lessons for Years 1 and 2 about the sky, shooting stars and rocks from space, with simple activities, counting and a quiz at the e
  • Craters: when big rocks hitSmall meteorites land with a thud, but large ones hit so hard that they blast out a crater.
  • Rocks from the Moon and MarsA few meteorites have come from the Moon and from Mars. In this lesson you will find out how a rock can escape a world and how scientists kn
  • What is a meteorite?A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal from space that has landed on Earth. This lesson gives you the three words every space-rock scientis
  • Key Stage 2: Rocks from spaceTwelve lessons on meteorites for Years 3 to 6: what they are, where they come from, how to test a rock like a scientist, craters, the end of
  • Gravity, weight and orbitsGravity holds the Solar System together and decides where meteorites end up. In this lesson you will calculate weight on different worlds an
  • Missions to asteroidsSpacecraft have now visited asteroids, brought back samples and even pushed one off course.
  • The small bodies of the Solar SystemBetween and beyond the planets are millions of asteroids and comets. This lesson sets out where they are, how far away they are and how a pi

Books (2)

Famous meteorites (2)

  • Allan Hills 81005A golf-ball-sized rock found in Antarctica in 1982 – the first meteorite recognised as coming from the Moon.
  • AllendeThe meteorite that fell on a Mexican village months before Apollo 11 – and turned out to hold the oldest solids in the Solar System.

Meteorite types (6)

  • Lunar basalts and gabbrosDark volcanic rock from the lunar maria, the Moon's great lava plains. Lunar basalts are pieces of the dark lava plains, the maria, that
  • Feldspathic lunar meteoritesPale breccias from the ancient lunar highlands, the most common kind of Moon rock to reach Earth.
  • Lunar meteoritesRocks from the Moon, found mainly in deserts and Antarctica. Lunar meteorites are pieces of the Moon blasted off by impacts.
  • Mingled lunar brecciasBreccias that mix highland and mare rock, from the borders between the two. Mingled breccias contain both pale highland material and dark ma
  • Planetary achondritesRocks knocked off the Moon and Mars by impacts. A few achondrites come not from asteroids but from much larger worlds.
  • Stony meteoritesMeteorites made mostly of silicate minerals. They are by far the most common kind seen to fall.

Space missions (22)

  • Apollo 11The first Moon rocks, collected by the first people to walk on another world. On 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the luna
  • Apollo 12A pinpoint landing beside an old robot, and the discovery of KREEP. Apollo 12 was struck by lightning twice in the first minute after launch
  • Apollo 14Rocks thrown out by the giant impact that made the Imbrium basin. Apollo 14 landed on 5 February 1971 in the Fra Mauro hills, the target tha
  • Apollo 15The first lunar rover, a winding valley of lava, and the Genesis Rock. Apollo 15 was the first of the longer, science-led missions.
  • Apollo 16The only Apollo landing in the central highlands, and a surprise about how they formed.
  • Apollo 17The last crewed landing, the only geologist on the Moon, and orange soil. Apollo 17 was the last time people walked on the Moon.
  • Chandrayaan-1India's first Moon mission found water on the lunar surface and a new kind of lunar rock.
  • Chang'e 2A Moon mapper that went on to make China's first close flyby of an asteroid. Chang'e 2 was built as a backup for China's first M
  • Chang'e 4The first spacecraft to land softly on the far side of the Moon. Chang'e 4 touched down on 3 January 2019 in Von Kármán crater, a crater
  • Chang'e 5China's first Moon samples, and the youngest lava ever brought back from the Moon. Chang'e 5 was the first lunar sample return since
  • Chang'e 6The first samples ever brought back from the far side of the Moon. The far side of the Moon always faces away from Earth, so a lander there
  • DARTThe first test of moving an asteroid: a spacecraft deliberately crashed into a small moon.
  • GalileoThe first close look at an asteroid, and the discovery that asteroids can have moons.
  • HeraEurope's detective mission to study the asteroid moon that DART struck. DART showed that an asteroid can be nudged, but telescopes on Ea
  • LucyA twelve-year tour of the Trojan asteroids, possible fossils of planet formation. The Trojan asteroids travel around the Sun in two great sw
  • Luna 16The first robot to scoop up part of another world and fly it home. Luna 16 proved that a machine could do what had so far needed astronauts.
  • Luna 20A robot's sample of the bright, ancient highlands of the Moon. Luna 20 was the second successful Soviet sample return, and the first to
  • Luna 24The last Moon sample for 44 years: a long core from the Sea of Crises. Luna 24 landed on 18 August 1976 in Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises,
  • Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSSA Moon mapper that watches new craters form, and a rocket stage crashed to find polar ice.
  • Mars ExpressEurope's long-lived Mars orbiter, which has made the closest flybys of the moon Phobos.
  • Tianwen-2China's mission to sample a tiny companion of Earth that may be a piece of the Moon.
  • Mission timeline213 milestones in the exploration of asteroids, comets, the Moon and Mars, from Luna and Apollo to Hayabusa2, OSIRIS-REx and Chang'e 6.

Meteorite minerals (13)

  • AnorthiteCalcium-rich plagioclase, the mineral of the Moon's first crust and of the oldest solids in chondrites.
  • ArmalcoliteAn iron–magnesium–titanium oxide named after the Apollo 11 astronauts. Armalcolite is an oxide very rich in titanium.
  • Changesite-(Y)A rare-earth-bearing phosphate discovered in Moon rock returned by Chang'e 5. Changesite-(Y) is a phosphate of calcium and iron with ytt
  • ChlorapatiteA chlorine-bearing calcium phosphate in ordinary chondrites, and a record of water and gas in their parent bodies.
  • DonwilhelmsiteA dense calcium aluminium silicate in lunar meteorites, made from shock-melted Moon crust.
  • IlmeniteAn iron–titanium oxide abundant in lunar mare basalts and common in eucrites and Martian meteorites.
  • MerrilliteThe main phosphate mineral of most meteorites and of lunar and Martian rocks. Merrillite is a calcium phosphate with sodium and magnesium.
  • OlivineThe green magnesium–iron silicate that is the most common mineral in stony meteorites and the gem crystals of pallasites.
  • PigeoniteA low-calcium pyroxene that forms in quickly cooled lavas, typical of eucrites and lunar and Martian basalts.
  • PlagioclaseThe feldspar series from sodium albite to calcium anorthite, the light-coloured mineral of basalts and lunar highlands.
  • PyroxferroiteAn iron-rich silicate that forms in the last melt of lunar and Martian basalts. Pyroxferroite is a chain silicate similar in chemistry to ir
  • TranquillityiteA rare iron–zirconium–titanium silicate first found in Apollo 11 Moon rocks. Tranquillityite is a silicate rich in iron, titanium and zircon
  • ZirconA tough zirconium silicate that holds uranium, making it one of the best natural clocks.

Glossary (38)

Questions and answers (34)

Meteor showers (2)

Impact craters (10)

  • DecaturvilleDecaturville is an eroded impact structure about 6 km across in Camden County, Missouri, in the United States.
  • GusevGusev is a small buried impact crater about 3 km across in Rostov Oblast, southern Russia.
  • LoganchaLogancha is an eroded impact structure about 20 km across in the remote Evenk district of central Siberia, Russia, north of the Lower Tungus
  • MålingenMålingen is a small impact crater about 1 km across in Jämtland, central Sweden, about 16 km from the much larger Lockne crater.
  • Mistastin (Kamestastin)Mistastin Lake, known to the Innu as Kamestastin, lies in the tundra and forest of northern Labrador, in eastern Canada.
  • Nördlinger RiesThe Ries is a crater people live in. Its floor is a broad, flat plain of farmland and villages in Bavaria, southern Germany, and at its hear
  • Sierra MaderaSierra Madera is a deeply eroded impact structure about 13 km across in the desert of west Texas, in the United States.
  • SudburySudbury in Ontario is one of the largest and oldest impact structures on Earth, and almost certainly the most valuable.
  • TenoumerTenoumer is one of the most perfect-looking craters on Earth. It rises out of the flat, gravelly plains of the Sahara in north-western Mauri
  • Vargeão DomeVargeão Dome is an impact structure about 12 km across in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil.

Impact events (3)

  • The giant impact that made the MoonA planet-sized collision that probably gave Earth its Moon. Within the first hundred million years or so of the Solar System, while the plan
  • The Late Heavy BombardmentWas there a sudden storm of giant impacts 3.9 billion years ago, or a slow fading of them? In the 1970s, scientists dating rocks melted by i
  • The Ries and Steinheim impactsThe crater that proved impacts shape the Earth, and the source of moldavite. The Nördlinger Ries is a round, flat basin about 24 km across i

Asteroids (19)

  • 1950 DA1950 DA is an asteroid about 1.3 kilometres across whose orbit is being watched with great patience, because the date of interest is more th
  • 1998 KY261998 KY26 is a tiny asteroid that will become the smallest ever visited by a spacecraft.
  • 2024 YR42024 YR4 is a small asteroid that briefly became the most talked-about rock in the sky, and its story is a perfect lesson in how asteroid tr
  • ApolloApollo was the first asteroid found whose orbit crosses Earth's. Karl Reinmuth discovered it at Heidelberg on 24 April 1932, when it pas
  • BennuBennu is a small, dark asteroid about 490 metres across that has been studied more closely than almost any other.
  • Asteroid close approachesEvery known asteroid passing within 19 Moon distances of Earth over the past month and the coming year, with distances, sizes and speeds exp
  • Didymos and DimorphosDidymos is a near-Earth asteroid about 780 metres across with a small moon, Dimorphos, about 150 metres wide, circling it at a distance of a
  • DinkineshDinkinesh is a small asteroid that was added to NASA's Lucy mission almost as an afterthought, and then produced one of its biggest surp
  • Duende (2012 DA14)Duende, first known as 2012 DA14, is a small asteroid that passed exceptionally close to Earth on 15 February 2013.
  • FlorenceFlorence is one of the largest near-Earth asteroids, about 4.5 kilometres across. Schelte Bus discovered it on 2 March 1981 at the Siding Sp
  • GanymedGanymed is the largest known near-Earth asteroid, about 35 kilometres across. It is not to be confused with Ganymede, the largest moon of Ju
  • GolevkaGolevka is a small near-Earth asteroid, about 530 metres across, that made history in 2003.
  • IcarusIcarus is named after the young man in Greek legend who flew too close to the Sun, and the name fits.
  • IdaIda is famous for its moon. When NASA's Galileo spacecraft flew past it on 28 August 1993, the pictures were stored on board and sent ba
  • ItokawaItokawa was the first asteroid from which samples were brought back to Earth. Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft arrived in September 2005, stu
  • KamoʻoalewaKamoʻoalewa is a small asteroid that seems to keep Earth company. It orbits the Sun, not the Earth, but its orbit is so similar to ours that
  • PhaethonPhaethon is the asteroid behind the Geminids, one of the richest meteor showers of the year.
  • RyuguRyugu is a dark, carbon-rich asteroid about 900 metres across, shaped like a spinning top with a ridge around its equator.
  • ToutatisToutatis is an elongated asteroid about 4.5 kilometres long that does not spin neatly like most bodies.

Micrometeorites (2)

History (1)

People (15)

  • Alfred WegenerThe scientist best known for continental drift, who also argued in 1921 that the Moon's craters were made by impacts.
  • Brian MasonThe Smithsonian curator who classified thousands of Antarctic meteorites and spotted that the first lunar meteorite looked like Apollo highl
  • David McKayThe NASA scientist who led the 1996 study suggesting that the Martian meteorite ALH 84001 might hold traces of ancient life.
  • Elbert KingThe first curator of the Apollo Moon rocks, who helped design how they were received and protected on Earth. Elbert Aubrey King Jr.
  • Eugene ShoemakerThe founder of planetary geology, who proved Meteor Crater was an impact and co-discovered the comet that hit Jupiter.
  • Gerald WasserburgThe Caltech geochemist whose super-clean laboratory dated Moon rocks and found the traces of aluminium-26 in the Allende meteorite.
  • Grove Karl GilbertThe great American geologist who argued that the Moon's craters were made by impacts, yet concluded that Meteor Crater was not.
  • Harold UreyThe Nobel prize-winning chemist who helped found cosmochemistry, the study of the chemistry of the Solar System.
  • Harrison SchmittThe only professional geologist to walk on the Moon, who collected rock samples on Apollo 17 in December 1972.
  • John SchuttThe ANSMET mountaineer who, with Ian Whillans, found the first meteorite recognised as coming from the Moon, in January 1982.
  • John WoodThe planetary scientist who co-created the petrologic types of chondrites and first proposed that the young Moon was covered in a magma ocea
  • Ralph BaldwinThe astronomer who made the case in 1949, in The Face of the Moon, that the Moon's craters were blasted out by impacts.
  • Robert ClaytonThe chemist who discovered that oxygen isotopes give every meteorite group its own fingerprint, the key to telling where meteorites come fro
  • Toshiko MayedaThe chemist who, with Robert Clayton, measured the oxygen isotopes of meteorites from every part of the Solar System.
  • Ursula MarvinThe Smithsonian geologist who studied Moon rocks and meteorites, searched the Antarctic ice for ANSMET and wrote the history of meteoritics.

Museums and collections (4)

Meteorites (the 60 largest of 165)