VAULT
Left: A visitor looks through the magnifier at lunar meteorite NWA 11474. Right: A close-up of the meteorite.
MOON SHOT A closer look at a lunar meteorite by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER photography by JOSHUA STEADMAN
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s star-gazing couples huddle under their blankets this month peering up at the night sky, some may spot what they believe to be a shooting star. It could be — but more likely, that burst of light actually marks the fiery descent of space debris entering the Earth’s atmosphere. 32 | WALTER
While rocky bits from the solar system rain down on Earth every day, most of the pieces that come our way disintegrate before reaching the ground. The rocks that do land are meteorites, and you can see a vast array of them on display outside of the Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Lab (AARL) at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Considering that 75% of our planet is covered in water, and that many meteorites often look no different than any other rock, these objects are extremely difficult to find. Even rarer — we’re talking 0.1% of them — are lunar meteorites, rocks that were ejected from the surface of the Moon as the result of a comet or asteroid striking its surface.
