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The Bench Crater meteorite is a
meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
discovered on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
by
Apollo 12 Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Commander Pete Conra ...
astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
in 1969. It is part of the
friable Friability ( ), the condition of being friable, describes the tendency of a solid substance to break into smaller pieces under duress or contact, especially by rubbing. The opposite of friable is indurate. Substances that are designated hazardous, ...
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
lunar sample 12037. Found on the north-west rim of the Bench Crater, it is the first meteorite to be discovered on a
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
body other than the Earth. Its diameter is just a few millimeters. It is listed as a
carbonaceous chondrite Carbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 8 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites. The C chondrites represent only a small prop ...
by the
Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of the ...
.


See also

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Glossary of meteoritics This is a glossary of terms used in meteoritics, the science of meteorites. # * 2 Pallas – an asteroid from the asteroid belt and one of the likely parent bodies of the CR meteorites. * 4 Vesta – second-largest asteroid in the asteroid b ...
*
Big Bertha (lunar sample) Lunar Sample 14321, better known as "Big Bertha", is a lunar sample containing an embedded Earth-origin meteorite collected on the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. It was found in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon. Big Bertha is the first discovered mete ...
*
Hadley Rille meteorite The Hadley Rille meteorite was a meteorite discovered on the Moon at coordinates 26° 26' 0" N, 3° 39' 20" E, or Station 9A, during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. It was the second meteorite to be discovered on a Solar System body other than the ...
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Heat Shield Rock Heat Shield Rock is a basketball-sized iron-nickel meteorite found on the Meridiani Planum plain of Mars by the Mars rover ''Opportunity'' in January 2005. Informally referred to as "Heat Shield Rock" by the Opportunity research team, the m ...
(Mars – Meridiani Planum meteorite) *
List of Martian meteorites This is a list of Martian meteorites i.e. meteorites that have been identified as having originated from Mars. Of the over 53,000 meteorites that have been found on Earth just 99 had been identified as Martian . On 17 October 2013, NASA reported, ...
*
List of meteorites on Mars This is an alphabetical list of named rocks (and meteorites) found on Mars, by mission. This list is a sampling of rocks viewed, and is not an exhaustive listing. A more complete listing may be found on the various NASA mission web sites. This lis ...


References


Meteoritical Bulletin Database

76th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2013)

Sample 12037
Apollo 12 Meteorites found on the Moon Pete Conrad Alan Bean {{Meteorite-stub