Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How do meteorites get blasted off the Moon and reach Earth?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Meteorite
The Hoba meteorite, lying where it was discovered in 1920 near Grootfontein, Namibia. The largest meteorite on Earth and an iron meteorite by classification, it consists of a nickel-iron alloy and is estimated to weigh about 60 tons.
Meteorites originating from the Moon reach Earth after being ejected from the lunar surface by large impacts.123
When a large body strikes the Moon, the resulting high-velocity impact can blast fragments of lunar rock into space. These ejected pieces eventually find their way to Earth, where they are identified as lunar meteorites by comparing their mineral and chemical compositions to the samples returned by the Apollo and Luna missions.1432
While most meteorites found on Earth are derived from the asteroid belt, these lunar fragments provide valuable, additional data about the Moon's history and composition, particularly from regions not visited by human or robotic explorers.43