Posted by
michael
on from the pennies-from-heaven dept.
LT4Ryan writes: "An article at CNN.com has news that rock hunters have discovered 5 new meteorites from the Red Planet. Apparently these rocks are quite valuable, grabbing $3,000 US per gram in Auctions."
Re:Validity of meteorites.. from Mars?
by
pease1
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Apparently in the distant past, there was at least one impact event on Mars that was large enough to have thrown a good amount of Martian material into solar orbit. The Earth has sweep this material up over the ions and some of the pieces have survived entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
A good bet for the impact location on Mars is the Hellas Basin region. Because this is a low area on the surface of Mars, it is often covered with frost and can be pretty easy to see with a telescope at certain times.
If you look at a
globe of Mars, it is interesting to realize that the massive volcanos of the Tharsis region is directly on the other side of the planet. In the image above, Hellas is the big crater to the lower right, Tharsis is left of center - look for four big "mountains."
A nice map as you see Mars in a telescope with markings labeled is
here
And my
drawings of Mars.:-) I have a friend that owns
a hunk of one of the known Martian rocks. Every
now and then he lets me hold it if I buy him a beer.
These rocks have a chemical make up that is completely different then any other meteorites found on Earth. Chemical studies of Martian soil
done by the Viking spacecraft in the 1970's comfirmed that these rocks come from Mars.
Slashdot Mirror
A good bet for the impact location on Mars is the Hellas Basin region. Because this is a low area on the surface of Mars, it is often covered with frost and can be pretty easy to see with a telescope at certain times.
If you look at a globe of Mars, it is interesting to realize that the massive volcanos of the Tharsis region is directly on the other side of the planet. In the image above, Hellas is the big crater to the lower right, Tharsis is left of center - look for four big "mountains."
A nice map as you see Mars in a telescope with markings labeled is here
And my drawings of Mars. :-) I have a friend that owns
a hunk of one of the known Martian rocks. Every
now and then he lets me hold it if I buy him a beer.
These rocks have a chemical make up that is completely different then any other meteorites found on Earth. Chemical studies of Martian soil done by the Viking spacecraft in the 1970's comfirmed that these rocks come from Mars.
There are lunar meteorites also.