Meteorite | Diogenite NWA 7831 | Asteroidal achondrite | 79g

Product detailed description

To trace the formation of this meteorite, we would have to go back one to two billion years. That is when two large meteores hit one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, Vesta (525 km in diameter), catapulting chunks of rock into space. These fragments gradually made their way to our planet as meteorites. Vesta is located in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, and the Dawn space probe, after a detailed study of the asteroid, confirmed that its composition exactly matches the meteorite NWA (Northwest Africa) 7831. The latter consists mainly of pyroxene crystals, olivine and plagioclase and its thin sections are nice and translucent.

The Vesta meteorites belong to the so-called HED meteorites (a subgroup of achondrites), and are subdived into Howardites, Eucrites and Diogenites - the latter being the most visually beautiful of this group.

Meteorite NWA 7831 was found in March 2013 in the Western Sahara (Sakia al-Hamra) in a relatively small quantity of about 20 kg.

Weight: 79 g
Location of discovery: Sakia al-Hamra, Western Sahara
Composition: pyroxene crystals, olivines and plagioclase
Interesting fact: The meteorite was found in a single piece weighing 20 kg