Not surprisingly, extremely rare lunar and Martian
achondrites can sell for thousands of dollars per gram.
Achondrites (which lack chondrules) are prized by scientists and collectors alike because they come from the Moon, Mars, the asteroid Vesta, and other geologically differentiated bodies.
Achondrites are usually the most expensive because of their rarity and place of origin.
Basaltic
achondrites lack the rounded particles, or chondrules, found inside most stony meteorites.
Only one known asteroid, 4 Vesta, has a surface composition similar to that of basaltic achondrites, researchers showed in the 1970s.
Binzel and Xu conclude that 4 Vesta is indeed the parent body of most basaltic achondrites. They reported their work last week in Munich, Germany, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
That mineral also predominates in a group of meteorites called enstatite achondrites. Gaffey's team believes these meteorites represent fragments of the kilometer-size asteroid they studied.
Researchers had previously suspected that enstatite achondrites came from the Hungaria region, but they discounted the idea because the surfaces of meteorites falling to Earth directly from this locale would have been bombarded by cosmic rays for tens of millions of years.