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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."

10 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. I'm curious... by GedConk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How can they be sure that it comes from Mars and not from an asteroid/comet/moon/whatever ?

    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 b-baggins · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why should the Oxygen isotopes be different in different parts of the solar system? Didn't we supposedly all coalesce out of the same cloud of stuff?

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    3. 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
    4. 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..
    5. Re:I'm curious... by nlindstrom · · Score: 2, Insightful
      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.
      Bzzzzt! Wrong! You cannot compare A with B and use B to verify A if you are unable to independently verify B first. In other words, since we've yet to bring back any samples from Mars, we cannot know for certain that the Arctic rock is indeed Martian, and therefore cannot use it to sanity-check the data coming from Mars.

      It's a great case of a cyclic logic falicy: A agrees with B, therefore B verifies A. It's like saying God exists because the bible says so, and the bible is correct about God's existence since God wrote the bible.

  2. Extraterrestrial Rocks by anim8 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The cool thing about Antarctica (no pun intended) is that if you see any rocks sitting on top of the ice they most likely came from outer space.

    I've heard that you are most likely to find them near the bases of mountain ranges where the swirling winds scours away the ice and snow better, revealing alien rocks and pebbles that have been covered for millenia.

    I'd guess there are tons of Martian rocks under the ice, perhaps some from Venus, lots of moon rocks ... and many more run-of-the-mill meteorites.

  3. Venus rocks not likely by missing000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Remember folks, launching stuff into a much higher orbit requires lots of energy.

    The reason Mars rocks get here is because they are intercepted on their way to the sun.

    1. 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.
    2. Re:Venus rocks not likely by Urkki · · Score: 2, Insightful
      • Remember folks, launching stuff into a much higher orbit requires lots of energy.

        The reason Mars rocks get here is because they are intercepted on their way to the sun.

      Bzz. Wrong. Launching stuff to a much lower orbit also requires lots of energy. Basically the energy requirement is the same between two orbits, no matter wether you go from a lower to a higher orbit or the other way around. Quite obivious when you think about it, otherwise you could make perpetual motion machine, tapping the energy difference...