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Mars Rock Found In Antarctica

Posted by timothy on from the it-was-lonely dept.

lousyd writes "Scientists with with ANSMET, the Antarctic Search for Meteorites, have found a meteorite in the Antarctic that apparently has come from Mars. Weighing in at 715.2 grams, the find has been confirmed by the National Museum of Natural History. The rock is a member of the 'nakhlite' set, and has been named MIL 03346. By having the real thing before them, this offers Mars researchers a reality check on the data coming back from the various probes currently on Mars."

4 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm curious... by anim8 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Viking landers of the 70s identified the unique chemical compostion of Mars rocks. Likewise, the earth, moon and meteorites have their own unique characteristics.

    Read More

  2. Re:I'm curious... by MarsDefenseMinister · · Score: 3, Informative

    Same cloud, but it wasn't uniform. Each planet is different from each other, and from the Sun. They also came out of the same cloud.

    --
    No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
  3. Re:I'm curious... by Somegeek · · Score: 5, Informative
    A really simple explanation from NASA:

    "Most martian meteorites are 1.3 billion years old or less, much younger than typical igneous meteorites from asteroids which are 4.5 billion years old. They also have higher contents of volatiles than igneous meteorites. The conclusive evidence that the SNC meteorites originated on Mars comes from the measurement of gases trapped in one meteorite's interior. The trapped gases match those that Viking measured in the martian atmosphere."

    For more detail:

    http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/mar smets/Text.htm

    --
    And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
  4. Re:Venus rocks not likely by missing000 · · Score: 2, Informative
    A comet or large asteroid could pull Venus' ejectae and send it into a higher or irregular orbit that could eventually cross paths with earth.
    Not to be mean, but pigs could fly too. Really, the chances of this are really quite slim. I don't have the data set to prove it, but I'd expect the probability of Venus originated meteorites in the once-in-a-billion-year range or so.

    Martian meteors on the other hand happen quite regularly.

    In fact, there is a large list of Martian matter found on earth, but there has never been a meteor found from another planet.

    My guess is the layout of the solar system is at fault here. Our neighbors to the inner solar system are at a gravitational disadvantage, and those outside of Mars are simply too large to have meaningful ejections until you get to Pluto, but it's so far away and so small that the chances are really small there as well.