[meteorite-list] Lunar and Martian Meteorites

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:38 2004
Message-ID: <200305112101.OAA24409_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>Another plausible, though perhaps less scientific, explanation not mentioned by J. Kelly Beatty is this one: There are still many more lunars ou there (both in Antarctica and the Hot Deserts) awaiting to be found or discovered. They may be covered by several inches of sand, snow or blue ice, and, being achondritic, i.e. poor in free metal, metal detectors can't provide any useful help. See also list member Norbert Classen's article* for further intriguing details.

I also believe there are many more lunar meteorites out there yet to be
'discovered'. The moon rocks probably blend in better with Earth rocks.
 
> Something else that has always been a puzzle to me is the relatively small size of lunar and martian meteorites found to date. Why aren't there really big ones like the Jilin main mass (1770 kg), the 408 kg Paragould LL5 stone, or the 91 kg Juvinas eucrite? Does this have to do with orbital dynamics in the Earth-Moon and the Earth-Mars system?

It probably has to do with the mass of the parent body. It is either to
break off large chucks off an asteroid than the Moon or Mars, which have
substantial more gravity than an asteroid.

Ron Baalke
Received on Sun 11 May 2003 05:01:54 PM PDT