NWA 3009
NWA 3009 (Northwest Africa 3009) is a stone meteorite that was found near Zag in Morocco in 2001 .
Meteorites are usually named after the nearest town to the place where they were found. The meteorites found in the deserts of North Africa, on the other hand, are usually given the designation NWA (Northwest Africa) and a serial number.
classification
NWA 3009 has a mass of 1522 grams. The meteorite was scientifically determined in 2003 by the Mineralogical-Petrographic Institute of the University of Hamburg and is documented in Meteoritical Bulletin No. 88.
The meteorite was classified as a brecciated 4.56 billion year old chondrite of class L 4 to 6, with shock class S3 and weathering degree W2. It contains chondrules , Fe / Ni deposits and even carbonaceous inclusions (see carbonaceous chondrite ) that can be seen without a magnifying glass .
origin
Like all L-chondrites, it probably comes from the asteroid Eros when it collided with another asteroid perhaps millions of years ago and fragments left the asteroid belt on an eccentric orbit, at some point crossed the earth's orbit and crashed as meteorites. The reflection spectra of this asteroid agree pretty much with those of the L and LL chondrites.
So far (December 27, 2009) only 25 of these L4-6 chondrites have been classified worldwide.
NWA 3009 is in a private collection in Oldenburg , Lower Saxony.
Samples of the meteorite are in the Mineralogical Museum of the University of Hamburg and in the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.