Apollo 16 sample 60025
174k GIF
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Anorthosite
Rock 60025 was collected at the Apollo 16 landing site in
the lunar highlands. It is a light-colored rock called anorthosite.
An anorthosite is a rock made up almost entirely of plagioclase
feldspar, a common rock-forming mineral on Earth. This rock is dated
at 4.2 billion years old, much older than the lunar basalts. |
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Apollo 17 sample #79135
61k JPEG
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Breccia
Rock 79135 comes from the Apollo 17 site which was called
Taurus-Littrow after the Taurus Mountains and the Littrow Crater
nearby. This rock is called a breccia. A breccia is a rock made
up of angular fragments of other rocks. Lots of the lunar rocks
that were brought back are breccias. This is because the lunar breccias
were formed by all the impacts on the Moon's surface. When you look
at the Moon you can see how heavily cratered and battered its surface
is, and this is reflected in the rocks. |
Photo credits: Apollo 16 anorthosite = NASA; Apollo
17 breccia = NASA #S73-15446
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