Tranquilityite is a mineral that was first discovered on the moon during the Apollo missions. It’s a silicate mineral made up of mostly iron, oxygen, silicon, zirconium and titanium with dashes of yttrium and calcium thrown in for spice. During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, it was discovered in the Mare Tranquillitatis area on the Moon.
In 2012, six sites in Australia were found to have Tranquilityite which for 40 years, hadn’t been seen anywhere on earth before. The mineral is considered pretty rare for now and scientists say that it is possible to use for age-dating the ricks in which it occurs.
I’ve taken photos of my own specimen before but I haven’t gotten any good photos of it at 1000x until now. I admit, while looking at it under the microscope, I was not expecting to see blue or teal colors. The last photo is with shortwave UV light.
You can view those in the gallery below
Coming soon…
Illuminated: A Collection of Fluorescent Minerals, is a new book that I am working on. It will be available on Amazon later this year. The focus is on several fluorescent minerals in my collection with detailed information.
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