[Rockhounds] Moon Rocks for Sale

[Axel Emmermann]

Hi, Doug,

Yes, UV leds are the future 😉
Sadly, to get interesting fluorescent minerals you need an active geology with hydrothermal activity, volcanism, and other geological mechanisms that are lacking on the moon and Mars. Also, I think that an oxidizing environment is better than a reducing one. Oh well...
If Bruce works on the Mars rovers, he should know my friend Everett Gibson. I'll ask him. Dr. Gibson is the person who received, cataloged and described every lunar sample from the Apollo project.

Axel

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> Namens Doug Bank
Verzonden: dinsdag 30 oktober 2018 21:46
Aan: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Onderwerp: Re: [Rockhounds] Moon Rocks for Sale

Axel,

Have you seen the “related” posts on the FMS Facebook site? One guy (Bruce White) on the site does some work for NASA on the rovers that may end up on Mars. They are planning on sending various UV lights (340nm?) to Mars. They may actually have one on the moon, but sadly they are looking at reflectance, not fluorescence. 

Doug

> On Oct 30, 2018, at 12:29 PM, Axel Emmermann <axel.emmermann at telenet.be> wrote:
> 
> Hi Kreigh
> 
> Unless these rocks are fluorescent, I would not pay big bucks for them. If they were, however, I would regret the lack of big bucks in my bank account.
> Minerals of lunar origin would fluoresce quite differently from their earthly counterparts. This is mostly due to the lower oxidation states that activators are likely to be in. 
> The Lanthanide series elements would mostly be in divalent state, rather than trivalent state as we find them on earth. Trivalent iron would be much rarer than divalent iron... So lunar feldspars are much more likely to fluoresce blue (Eu2+) than cherry red (Fe3+).
> 
> Cheers Axel
> 
> 
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> Namens Kreigh Tomaszewski
> Verzonden: dinsdag 30 oktober 2018 14:33
> Aan: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
> Onderwerp: [Rockhounds] Moon Rocks for Sale
> 
> Have you ever wanted to own a piece of the moon? Now might be your chance, if you have a million bucks lying around. Next month Sotheby’s in New York will auction off some of the only moon rocks that can be legally owned by private individuals.
> 
> 
> https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/real-moon-rocks-go-up-for-auction-in-new-york-expected-1830092539

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