Moon rock

Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as lunar meteorites.

Apollo program

Six Apollo missions collected 2,200 samples of material weighing through the use of the Apollo Lunar Sample Return Container, and processed into more than 110,000 individually cataloged samples.

Mission	Site	Sample mass returned	Year
Apollo 11	Mare Tranquillitatis		1969
Apollo 12	Ocean of Storms		1969
Apollo 14	Fra Mauro formation		1971
Apollo 15	Hadley–Apennine		1971
Apollo 16	Descartes Highlands		1972
Apollo 17	Taurus–Littrow		1972

Luna program

Three Luna spacecraft returned with of samples.

Mission	Site	Sample mass returned	Year
Luna 16	Mare Fecunditatis		1970
Luna 20	Mare Fecunditatis		1972
Luna 24	Mare Crisium		1976

The Soviet Union abandoned its attempts at a crewed lunar program in the 1970s, but succeeded in landing three robotic Luna spacecraft with the capability to collect and return small samples to Earth. A combined total of less than half a kilogram of material was returned.
In 1993, three small rock fragments from Luna 16, weighing 200 mg, were sold for US$ 442,500 at Sotheby's. In 2018, the same three Luna 16 rock fragments sold for US$ 855,000 at Sotheby's.

Chang'e missions

Mission	Site	Sample mass returned	Year
Chang'e 5	Mons Rümker		2020
Chang'e 6	Southern Apollo crater		2024

In 2020, Chang'e 5, the fifth lunar exploration mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, returned approximately of rocks and dust from the Oceanus Procellarum,, the largest dark region on the Moon, visible on the western edge. The Chang'e-5 samples contain 'perplexing combination' of minerals and include the sixth new lunar mineral, named Changesite-. This phosphate mineral characterized by colorless, transparent columnar crystals. Researchers estimated the peak pressure and impact duration of the collision that shaped the sample. Using shock wave models, they estimated the resulting crater to be between 3 and 32 kilometers wide, depending on the impact angle.
The follow-up mission to Chang'e 5, Chang'e 6, reached the Moon on May 8, 2024, and entered lunar orbit for 20 days to find an appropriate landing site. On 1 June 2024, the lander separated from the orbiter and landed on a mare unit at the southern part of the Apollo crater. The mission objective was to collect about 2 kg of material from the far side of the Moon and bring it back to Earth.
The Chang’e-6 probe withstood the high temperatures and collected the samples by drilling into the Moon's surface and scooping soil and rocks with a mechanical arm, according to a statement from the China National Space Administration.
The samples were placed in the ascent vehicle, which docked with the Chang'e 6 orbiter-return vehicle on June 6, 2024 China's Chang'e 6 lunar probe, carrying the first lunar rocks ever collected from the far side of the Moon, landed in China's Inner Mongolia region on June 25, 2024.

Lunar meteorites

More than 370 lunar meteorites have been collected on Earth, representing more than 30 different meteorite finds, with a total mass of over. Some were discovered by scientific teams searching for meteorites in Antarctica, with most of the remainder discovered by collectors in the desert regions of northern Africa and Oman. A Moon rock known as "NWA 12691", which weighs, was found in the Sahara Desert at the Algerian and Mauritanian borders in January 2017, and went on sale for $2.5 million in 2020.

Dating

Rocks from the Moon have been measured by radiometric dating techniques. They range in age from about 3.16 billion years old for the basaltic samples derived from the lunar maria, up to about 4.44 billion years old for rocks derived from the highlands. Based on the age-dating technique of "crater counting," the youngest basaltic eruptions are believed to have occurred about 1.2 billion years ago, but scientists do not possess samples of these lavas. In contrast, the oldest ages of rocks from the Earth are between 3.8 and 4.28 billion years.

Composition

Mineral	Elements	Lunar rock appearance
Plagioclase feldspar	Calcium Aluminium Silicon Oxygen	White to transparent gray; usually as elongated grains.
Pyroxene	Iron , Magnesium Calcium Silicon Oxygen	Maroon to black; the grains appear more elongated in the maria and more square in the highlands.
Olivine	Iron Magnesium Silicon Oxygen	Greenish color; generally, it appears in a rounded shape.
Ilmenite	Iron , Titanium Oxygen	Black, elongated square crystals.

Moon rocks fall into two main categories: those found in the lunar highlands, and those in the maria. The terrae consist dominantly of mafic plutonic rocks. Regolith breccias with similar protoliths are also common. Mare basalts come in three distinct series in direct relation to their titanium content: high-Ti basalts, low-Ti basalts, and Very Low-Ti basalts.
Almost all lunar rocks are depleted in volatiles and are completely lacking in hydrated minerals common in Earth rocks. In some regards, lunar rocks are closely related to Earth's rocks in their isotopic composition of the element oxygen. The Apollo Moon rocks were collected using a variety of tools, including hammers, rakes, scoops, tongs, and core tubes. Most were photographed prior to collection to record the condition in which they were found. They were placed inside sample bags and then a Special Environmental Sample Container for return to the Earth to protect them from contamination. In contrast to the Earth, large portions of the lunar crust appear to be composed of rocks with high concentrations of the mineral anorthite. The mare basalts have relatively high iron values. Furthermore, some of the mare basalts have very high levels of titanium.

Highlands rocks

	Plagioclase	Pyroxene	Olivine	Ilmenite
Anorthosite	90%	5%	5%	0%
Norite	60%	35%	5%	0%
Troctolite	60%	5%	35%	0%

Primary igneous rocks in the lunar highlands compose three distinct groups: the ferroan anorthosite suite, the magnesian suite, and the alkali suite.
Lunar breccias, formed largely by the immense basin-forming impacts, are dominantly composed of highland lithologies because most mare basalts post-date basin formation.

The ferroan anorthosite suite consists almost exclusively of the rock anorthosite with less common anorthositic gabbro. The ferroan anorthosite suite is the most common group in the highlands, and is inferred to represent plagioclase flotation cumulates of the lunar magma ocean, with interstitial mafic phases formed from trapped interstitial melt or rafted upwards with the more abundant plagioclase framework. The plagioclase is extremely calcic by terrestrial standards, with molar anorthite contents of 94–96%. This reflects the extreme depletion of the bulk Moon in alkalis as well as water and other volatile elements. In contrast, the mafic minerals in this suite have low Mg/Fe ratios that are inconsistent with calcic plagioclase compositions. Ferroan anorthosites have been dated using the internal isochron method at circa 4.4 Ga.
The magnesian suite consists of dunites, troctolites, and gabbros with relatively high Mg/Fe ratios in the mafic minerals and a range of plagioclase compositions that are still generally calcic. These rocks represent later intrusions into the highlands crust at round 4.3–4.1 Ga. An interesting aspect of this suite is that analysis of the trace element content of plagioclase and pyroxene requires equilibrium with a KREEP-rich magma, despite the refractory major element contents.
The alkali suite is so-called because of its high alkali content—for Moon rocks. The alkali suite consists of alkali anorthosites with relatively sodic plagioclase, norites, and gabbronorites with similar plagioclase compositions and mafic minerals more iron-rich than the magnesian suite. The trace element content of these minerals also indicates a KREEP-rich parent magma. The alkali suite spans an age range similar to the magnesian suite.
Lunar granites are relatively rare rocks that include diorites, monzodiorites, and granophyres. They consist of quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase or alkali feldspar, rare mafics, and rare zircon. The alkali feldspar may have unusual compositions unlike any terrestrial feldspar, and they are often Ba-rich. These rocks apparently form by the extreme fractional crystallization of magnesian suite or alkali suite magmas, although liquid immiscibility may also play a role. U-Pb date of zircons from these rocks and from lunar soils have ages of 4.1–4.4 Ga, more or less the same as the magnesian suite and alkali suite rocks. In the 1960s, NASA researcher John A. O'Keefe and others linked lunar granites with tektites found on Earth although many researchers refuted these claims. According to one study, a portion of lunar sample 12013 has a chemistry that closely resembles javanite tektites found on Earth.
Lunar breccias range from glassy vitrophyre melt rocks, to glass-rich breccia, to regolith breccias. The vitrophyres are dominantly glassy rocks that represent impact melt sheets that fill large impact structures. They contain few clasts of the target lithology, which is largely melted by the impact. Glassy breccias form from impact melt that exit the crater and entrain large volumes of crushed ejecta. It may contain abundant clasts that reflect the range of lithologies in the target region, sitting in a matrix of mineral fragments plus glass that welds it all together. Some of the clasts in these breccias are pieces of older breccias, documenting a repeated history of impact brecciation, cooling, and impact. Regolith breccias resemble the glassy breccias but have little or no glass to weld them together. As noted above, the basin-forming impacts responsible for these breccias pre-date almost all mare basalt volcanism, so clasts of mare basalt are very rare. When found, these clasts represent the earliest phase of mare basalt volcanism preserved.