Lunar Meteorite NWA 12593 Reveals 3 Ancient Impacts, Including a 3.5-Billion-Year Moon Strike
Updated
Updated · Sci.News · Jun 10
Lunar Meteorite NWA 12593 Reveals 3 Ancient Impacts, Including a 3.5-Billion-Year Moon Strike
3 articles · Updated · Sci.News · Jun 10
Summary
Scientists found three separate impact events recorded in lunar meteorite NWA 12593, including a massive Moon strike about 3.5 billion years ago.
Radiometric dating and traces of cubic zirconia indicate that first collision was hot enough to melt the lunar surface into a broad impact sheet.
The meteorite later became a breccia when a smaller impact shattered and fused pieces of that melt rock, and a third, more recent collision blasted the fragment off the Moon toward Earth.
The 3.5-billion-year timing aligns with known impacts on Earth and asteroid Vesta, giving researchers a rare three-body record of heavy bombardment as the inner Solar System shifted toward less frequent collisions.
Northwest Africa 12593 (NWA 12593), discovered in Mali in 2017, is a rare lunar meteorite made of fragments of lunar soil and rock naturally cemented together. Its classification as a lunar fragmental regolith breccia means it preserves a record of the Moon’s surface processes and ancient history. Scientists used detailed mineralogical and isotopic analyses to confirm its lunar origin, making NWA 12593 a valuable geological time capsule. Studying this meteorite gives researchers a unique chance to understand the Moon’s past and the early history of the inner Solar System, which is often erased from Earth’s own record.