Fact sheet
15499 is vesicular lunar mare basalt with a porphyritic texture. It is composed of long needles of euhedral clinopyroxene (42%), set in a dark brownish grey microcrystalline groundmass (57%). The pyroxene needles are up to 1cm long, a few mm wide, and were originally hollow. In some areas the pyroxene crystals penetrate large vugs. The thin section shows that the rock is composed of long needles of euhedral pyroxene (augite-pigeonite) set in a dark brownish-grey microcrystalline to glassy (vitrophyric) groundmass. Opaque minerals present include ilmenite, chrome-spinel, ulvospinel, troilite and metallic iron.
The sample weighed 2024 grams before analysis. It has been dated at 3.34±0.08 billion years (Ar/Ar).
Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/