Could a metallic meteor be found on the Moon?

 

Seven percent of meteors are metallic.  Seven percent of the meteors hitting the Moon have been metallic.   It is known that by far the largest percentage of this hit with sufficient velocity to vaporize, and their metal became yet another layer on surface dust and dirt.  But why wouldn’t there be a few that didn’t vaporize?

One such meteor was found sitting on the surface on Mars. Of course, there is some air there to brake the incoming mass, as is the case on Earth.  But could such a meteor be located on the Moon?

On the Moon, there is 1/6 gravity but no atmosphere to slow a chunk down. There are large variations in the speed of meteorites, but if we take the slowest and assume it encounters the Moon from the retrograde, there is a chance one might make a landing without full vaporization.

Of those, only seven percent are metallic. Still, it is possible and it should be possible to locate such a thing from orbital scanning.

As an example, look at these LROC images of two Apollo 3rd stage which impacted the Moon.

Apollo 13 S-IVB

Apollo 15 S-IVB

The lower velocity on impact created an irregular crater.  A high velocity impact is what creates the perfect bowl shaped craters.

Perhaps if we looked, we might find such a meteor on or near the surface.

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