Howardite Meteorite

Howardite Meteorite

This Howardite meteorite, an achondrite polymict breccia, was discovered somewhere in Northwest Africa. It retains a typical brown crust on one side, which was likely protected by being buried in the desert sand and not exposed to wind and sandstorms like its other surfaces.

Howardites belong to a group of meteorites known as HEDs - Howardite, Eucrite, and Diogenite. These three types of meteorite are believed to have orginated from the asteroid Vesta. Eucrites are mainly basaltic rocks formed from molten material, while diogenites formed deeper within Vesta's crust. Howardites, like this one, are mixtures of material from both, combined by impacts on Vesta’s surface.

Vesta is the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt. Collisions during its history have blasted material from its surface into space, with some if it eventually falling to Earth as meteorites.