photo of the week

This is a false color x-ray map of the lunar meteorite NWA 3333, an impact breccia. Red represents aluminum, green, magnesium, and blue, iron. This section contains a large olivine-phyric basalt clast (left), an olivine gabbro cumulate clast (right side), and breccia. In this scheme, red grains are plagioclase, green are mostly olivine and some magnesian pyroxene, and purple to blue colors are Fe-rich pyroxene, glass, and ilmenite. A glassy impact-melt vein with several large vesicles cuts through the breccia on the right side. X-ray images were taken with the JEOL 8200 electron microprobe.
(image by Katherine Gibson)