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Meteor May Be From Martian Moon Phobos

Posted by timothy on from the thinks-it's-better-than-other-asteroids dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Russian and NASA scientists published in the March journal of Solar System Research, the proposition that a 1980 Yemenite meteorite originated from the martian moon, Phobos. It would be the first moon rock from another planet. New Scientist has a short description and Astrobiology Magazine has the picture. Unique among the 20,000 meteorites collected, this is similar to heat-shocked charcoal and shows several mineral phases not found terrestrially."

12 comments

  1. Klendathu! by dmayle · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's off to Klendathu! The bugs are hurling meteorites!

  2. Eh? by NanoGator · · Score: 1

    "he proposition that a 1980 Yemenite meteorite originated from the martian moon, Phobos. It would be the first moon rock from another planet."

    1.) Isn't Phobos a moon, not a planet?

    2.) Aren't pretty much all meteorites extra-terrestrial in nature?

    I don't mean to be nitpicky about the phrase itself, but it doesn't seem like a big deal to call it that. Maybe if it had said "First meteorite to hit our planet from another planet in our own solar system that we can positively identify..." I'd be more enthused. Afterall, it is a huge challenge to get our instruments over to other planets. If they'd send chunks to us it'd be a heck of a lot easier to study those worlds.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Eh? by ColaMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sounds like what he meant to say was that it would be the first rock from another planet's moon.

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
    2. Re:Eh? by AMystery · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the phrase it meant to be parsed as, the first rock from the moon of another planet, i.e., a moon rock. That is interesting in that if true, it would give us detailed compositional information about the material of either Phobos or Demos, hmm, that isn't spelled correctly...oh well, the other moon, you know, where the red guys landed in Doom and you had to go shoot them repeatedly with the automatic shotgun (you did use the cheats, didn't you?) From reading the article (gasp) it is a very very interesting rock, that shows three different rocks in it, the material of the parent body and then material from two different impacts, all amalgomated into one meteor that then visited our fair planet.

      For those who didn't read the article, it most likely came from an object that roamed through the solar system collecting other objects (a celestial garbage truck). This is the preferred origin for both the moons of Mars, so while it might not have come from one of the moons and instead be from an object like Ceres, in any case it is interesting.

    3. Re:Eh? by dotgain · · Score: 1
      I can't remember whether it's Phobos or Deimos that's only some 15km diameter. Not only is the gravity so weak that a man could leap himself into orbit, but surely due the the size of it, it won't be able to toss pebbles outward forever, there just isn't that much of it left.

      Not that diameter is the right word, it's shaped like a pie crust. Then again, I might be talking about the wrong moon.

  3. Sample return? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What is the urgency of a landing and sample return when Mars is contributing 20 rocks to Antarctica every year? There is even some evidence that these meteorite fragments have interiors where the temperature never rose about 100 F.

    1. Re:Sample return? by burris · · Score: 2, Informative

      We think those meteorites came from Mars but we are not certian. A sample return mission would provide certainty and may authenticate meteorites found on Earth. Further, the returned samples could be selected for how interesting the appear, rather than the random selection that falls on Earth.

  4. In other news... by ColdZero · · Score: 1, Funny

    In other news, a gateway to hell has been discovered on Phobos. Space marines have been sent to investigate. A game based on this discovery is purportedly in the works...

  5. RE:Topic name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meteor = bright trail left by a meteoroid as it travels through the atmosphere on its way to becoming a meteorite when/if it lands on the earth.

  6. Find the rocks before they get contaminated by Birger+Johansson · · Score: 1

    It would be very interesting to find a pristine rock from either Phobos or the Martian surface before the object gets contaminated by the terrestrial environment -meaning before they fall on Earth !
    Phobos -which is believed to have started off as an asteroid- might have the molecular building blocks for life, but the researchers want to be sure they are not just seeing earthly contaminants. And a rock from Mars' surface might have fossil bacteria, but such stuctures might also have been created after arriving on Earth.

    One way to retrieve such rocks in space is to look for big chunks that have settled in the L4/L5 regions of Mars' orbit after having been ejected by big impacts, and then send a spacecraft with an ion engine to take samples -much simpler than sending a sample return mission to the martian surface, or even to Phobos, since there is no strong gravity from a twenty-metre rock.

    Identifying such rocks would require a combination of spectroscopy (both visual light and IR) and dynamical considerations: An object near Mars' L4 or L5 points is more likely to have come from Mars than from the asteroid belt.
    Even if the probe on arrival finds the rock is a chunk of Phobos instead of a genuine Mars rock, it will still have great scientific interest.

    And compared to near-Earth asteroids, Phobos rocks will have experienced lower temperatures and might retain more volatile compounds.