[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

From: Thunder Stone <stanleygregr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:27:58 -0700
Message-ID: <SNT117-W44B9CA043A4A23E365E17ED2820_at_phx.gbl>

And think:

The moon is the closest celestial body to us; closer than Mars and the asteroid belt.

Greg S.

----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:24:14 -0700
> From: eric at meteoritesusa.com
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?
>
> Thank you Dr. Korotev! (Randy)
>
> I appreciate your response, and I know you can understand the confusion.
> Comparing the list of pairings of the 130 total "stones" Your list
> combined with Norbert's gives a better understanding of just how few
> Lunar meteorites there actually are. Re-figuring the percentages of 68
> "paired" Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total classified meteorites
> that's 0.133% of all meteorites.
>
> Wow! That's an "astronomically" small percentage.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Regards,
> Eric
>
>
>
> On 8/23/2010 11:53 AM, Randy Korotev wrote:
> > Dear Eric:
> >
> > My alphanumeric list contains 140 named stones,
> >
> > http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
> >
> > with the caveat that some do not actually have official names yet
> > (e.g., "Unnamed 12"). They're on the list because I've analyzed them
> > and know them to be lunar. That's the main reason that my number,
> > 140, is larger than the MetBull number, 130. It's my hope that all
> > the unnamed get official names someday.
> >
> > "Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been
> > recovered and classified, Ever?" Stones, yes; meteorites, no.
> >
> > My composition-ordered list has only 68 meteorites because of known or
> > strongly-suspected pairings.
> >
> > http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alumina.htm
> >
> > Norbert Classen keeps close tabs on this and has 67 on his list (he
> > and I both know about one that is on my list but may not be on his
> > list yet):
> >
> > http://www.meteoris.de/luna/list.html
> >
> > So, ~68 is the total number of known lunar meteorites. That
> > information is not easily available from the MetBull database. It
> > sometimes takes years to establish that different named stones are or
> > are not paired.
> >
> > A confusion for your calculations is that practically every individual
> > lunar and martian meteorite stone gets it's own name and line-item in
> > the MetBull database whereas all Allende stones have one name.
> >
> > Randy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > At 12:40 PM 8/23/2010 Monday, you wrote:
> >> Hi List,
> >>
> >> I know this has been talked about on-list but... I keep getting this
> >> question, or people that say they have found a "Lunar" meteorite. I'm
> >> wondering how many there actually are. I've heard numbers thrown
> >> about haphazardly, but no one has been able to give me a clear and
> >> concise answer.
> >>
> >> The Met-Bull has "...130 records found for meteorites with historical
> >> types that contain "Lunar"...'
> >>
> >> Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been
> >> recovered and classified, Ever? Or is my search flawed? (as a side
> >> note, it also says there are "...92 records found for meteorites with
> >> historical types that contain "Martian"...")
> >>
> >> Dr. Randy Korotev's "List of Lunar Meteorites" on the Washinton
> >> University website has the number at 140.
> >> http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
> >>
> >> Just for giggles I wanted to know how many total classified
> >> meteorites there actually were on the planet.
> >>
> >> "...39146 valid meteorite names; 11959 provisional names; 4589
> >> full-text writeups..."
> >>
> >> That's a whopping 51,105 classifications. Wow!
> >>
> >> Doing some simple math, 130 Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total
> >> classifications means that "Lunars" only makeup about 0.254% of the
> >> total number of meteorite ever classified. (0.180% for Martian
> >> meteorites).
> >>
> >> Are these number correct?
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Eric
> >>
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Received on Mon 23 Aug 2010 03:27:58 PM PDT