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Martian Rocks Land In Morocco
Hugh Pickens writes "Scientists have confirmed chemically a recent and rare invasion from Mars with 15 pounds of fresh Martian rocks falling in Morocco last July. A special committee of meteorite experts, which includes some NASA scientists, confirmed the test results Tuesday certifying that the meteorites recently collected came from Mars. The biggest rock weighs more than 2 pounds. Astronomers think that millions of years ago something big smashed into Mars that sent fragments hurtling through the solar system. Occasionally, some fall on Earth."
Ok, someone had to say it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"Like Webster's Dictionary They're Morocco Bound..."
... are a million to one, but still, they come!
are a million to one, he said.
phobos grunt I guess... probably pours salt into the wounds of the russian space program.
They put one heck of a throwing arm on those Rovers.
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
THAT'S NO ROCK!!!
(Ok, rest of you reply with some good stuff - I've got nothing)
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
It takes a special kind of person to assume they're making blind judgements (like yourself) and not acting with evidence.
Who knows? We could find out, but you've already concluded that they're just making shit up so there's no point to investigating I suppose.
Lunar rocks have a very well known composition. I'm sure it's possible to discern between Lunar, Earth, Martian, and non-planetary rocks. But you've got no clue how nor have you looked up any possible means of identifying them so it's all just hokum, right?
Is it really? Do you suppose they would do something so stupid, when they could readily be countered?
My brain hurts now. Thanks.
K'Breel Jr. addresses the Council:
"Council Members, Friends, Countrymen, Dad: A few Solar orbits ago, we set about on a secret project on the feasibility of attacking the Blue World, using a plan ("Robert Heinlein - The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress") devised by the Blue Worlders themselves. Today I am happy to report that our plan is a smashing success; we have dropped a few test rocks on a place called Morocco. The next phase of our plan involves more rocks, and much heavier rocks, aimed at all of the Blue World's space launching facilities! Glory to Mars! Glory to the Council! Glory to K'Breel!"
"Scientists have confirmed chemically..." This seems to sum it up pretty well. The constituents of Mars differ from that of Earth, the Moon, or any other rocky entity that we scan, test or study. We know the Moon was once a part of Earth because it shares similar chemical makeup to that of Earth. That being said, the eons that have passed, and more precisely, the organic alterations that have taken place on Earth have modified the chemical makeup of Earth's crust enough to differentiate between a sample collected here or there. While it could be coincidence, you could equate this to finding a MacDonald's cup across the street from McDonald's. Could it have come from another McDonald's? Sure, but it probably came from the closest one, and it sure as hell didn't come from the Burger King down the street.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1470827/
Because of their composition, numbnuts. You know, inorganic chemistry is a good place to start.
Start here.
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=mars+meteorites+minerals
http://www.imca.cc/mars/martian-meteorites.htm
Try reading something for a change instead of immediately dismissing things you don't instantly understand.
--
BMO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite : "These meteorites are thought to be from Mars because they have elemental and isotopic compositions that are similar to rocks and atmosphere gases analyzed by spacecraft on Mars."
Had to be done... I for one welcome our Martian rock throwing overlords...
Insert signature here...
Okay, how do they know that the "big smash" happened millions of years ago? Why not a few thousand years ago? Nobody documented it, anyway.
And your solution to this is to post more anonymous accusations?
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. That said, it is worthwhile to question so-called experts to find out how they came to their conclusions, rather than saying, "Gosh, he's smarter than me--he's get letters after his name and everything!" At the very least, you learn something.
Of course, if he had RTFA, he might have a clue about how these people determined that these rocks came from Mars:
So, no, it's not like they said, "A rock fell from the sky! It must have been from Mars!"
It is completely improbable that a stone fell off Mars (maybe one of the Martians through it at earth), what is far more probable is the meteor has been traveling through space from origin unknown.
Oh. Yeah, good answer.
The rest of us just figured they were bright red.
Try reading something for a change instead of immediately dismissing things you don't instantly understand.
--
BMO
Why use your brain when you can Duckspeak?
Another clue is that because planets like Mars are more geologically active?
Wha..?
More geologically active than what?
Another baseless comparison, methinks
captcha: 'obvious'
In Soviet Russia, Mars lands on you.
Table-ized A.I.
Well, the "Made on Mars" label is one clue.
Table-ized A.I.
Happens all the time....people like a name. Hype is the game. It's what brings in the grant money and tenure.
So YES, absolutely. I believe that on mere conjecture of some similarities between - oh wait. We don't have any Martian rocks to test here on Earth.
Oh but we do have some rovers who've tested some aspects of Martian soil. See x & y is in both the rock we found on earth and in Mars.
Therefore, we know in our smartness that this is Martian.
Heck, the assumptions of how solar systems are arranged are being shattered. And are turning out to be different than we've hypothesized.
No, this is junk science. There is NOT enought data to make such a conclusion. To claim "this rock came from off planet, either an asteroid debris, or perhaps blown off from a nearby neighboring planet".
That I CAN accept...
for fuck's sake, it's not at all worthwhile for scientists to have to spend most of their time with politics.
peer review exists so [b]actual scientists[/b] can question results, rather than wasting everybody's time asking questions that were answered years ago, but the people asking the questions are too dumb and lazy to look up themselves (and develop the background necessary to understand the citations).
the sheer fucking arrogance of people to think they, with their complete lack of expertise, should be afforded equal time and effort to what the peer review process gets.
if scientists had to behave like politicians, they'd have achieved exactly as much as politicians - we'd still be poking each other with bronze tipped spears, and that only if the uninitiated could grasp the advantage of alloying copper and tin.
why take advice that could enrich your life when you could check the post AC button and be a douchebag?
This is like me finding a pair of old eye glasses and exclaiming they must have been Ben Franklins since he wore eye glasses.
No, it's like you finding a pair of old eye glasses, and exclaiming they must have been Ben Franklin's because they look like glasses he was known to wear, they date to the right time, and have the inscription "BF" on them. Could the scientists be wrong? Sure, but the best evidence suggests that these are in fact Martian rocks.
Jesus loves me, he loves me a bunch, because he always puts Jiffy in my lunch.
We know the Moon was once a part of Earth because it shares similar chemical makeup to that of Earth.
Really, I am sure there are quite a few who will debate that fact. And if we visit and asteroid and determine it has similar chemical make-up. Must we conclude the asteroid came from Earth as well?
Or would it make more sense to conclude that it was a collection of mass that was available in our solar system. And not necessary derived from our little body of rock at all?
When something rather big hits a rocky planet, such as Earth, or Mars, it ejects quite a bit of rock up into the air. If the impact was hard enough, some of that rock can even be hurtled clear out of orbit.
I've heard it suggested that even Olympus Mons, with its enormous size, could have ejected immeasurable amounts of Martian rock material into outer space itself when it was still an active volcano as well.
It's chemical composition suggests a Martian origin. It's possible it came from somewhere else, but not terribly likely.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Okay, so let's see. Mars is a large rock. Big enough to have atmosphere. What is Mars' atmosphere made up of? Mars rock.
So let's say an asteroid that was formed in our solar system is of similar material to Mars. Oh, but Mars has activity, what's this mean. Melted rock? magma from it's core?
What similarities would exist in a rock that came from a collision of asteroids made up of similar material (which is probably fairly likely) as Mars?
Just saying...
Mind you, I'm not saying the rocks are not from Mars. But I really don't think we've got the data to make such conclusions. And I tend to chalk it up to "I want to get published Mommy".
It's the matter of "case closed" we're not open to alternatives or other thoughts. That's what I'm getting sick of. It's not the science I studied as a kid. Sure you could postulate an idea, test it, conclude that there was a potentiality. But in a game this big, such absolutes are in my book foolish.
I used to peer review, but then I took an arrow to the knee
...I can't wait to put them in some wine.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
"Are we going to Addis Abbaba, Mr. Luthor?"
I'll bet if we took blood samples we could confirm chemically that somebody's been smoking the ganj. Exactly how in the hell do they know that these rocks that fell from the sky were specifically from Mars? Why not the moon? Venus? Saturn? Shoe-Levy? Oh so sick of these people with their pronouncement of speculation as science fact. I think I should start smoking the ganj.
-- L8R, guitardood
Yes, because we all know that scientists never error and always agree.
Science is not some priesthood that never has to explain to the people who pay their salaries, and need merely agree with themselves. If their explanation can't be communicated to your average college educated person than perhaps they have to rethink it.
The chemical signature of the rocks and the Martian air match
How many core samples of Mars do we have to determine the atmosphere centuries ago when these rocks were supposedly blasted from the martian surface? What the composition of the atmosphere is today has nothing to do with conditions at that time unless you assume an absolutely static planet.
Mars are more geologically active, its rocks tend to be much younger
How can you determine the age of a rock that was blasted from the surface by a meteor strike without resort to sample from the surrounding area. Such huge impacts can mimic a more recent formation as the rock is essentially melted and reformed in the ejecta.
These scientists are GUESSING, and the others come along and use their guesses as a basis for claims that can't be proven, and which is all based on the original conjecture. There isn't a single rock on earth that can be stated with absolute certainty to have come from Mars. All we have is hard to explain rocks being found in hard to explain places.
There were firm conclusion about the surface of the moon that were proven utterly false upon the return of moon rocks. The entire field of study was re-written by the return of the moon rocks. The history of Mars as we know it has been largely rewritten since the several landers have touched down. And still we are dealing with this planet at the end of a sensor stack, with no real material in hand.
There is arrogance here, but its not to be found in the common man in the street asking questions. Its in the assumptions and flat out assertions that can't be proven, the utter arrogance of denying any responsibility to offer an explanation on the grounds that scientists are some how above having to do that.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
No no no!
It's a perfectly valid question. What's so unique about the chemical composition of a rock from Mars that one could categorically say that it came from that planet and no other source?
Mars is an aggregate of rocks from the early solar system, so why wouldn't some of those rocks still be freely drifting around in our solar system? Also, Mars was practically smashed in half in it's early years, why wouldn't it be some of that rubble still floating around?
I've heard it numerous times now that meteorite is "definitely from Mars". One of these times I'd like to hear why they are so sure.
must have been really bummed out they did not find them...
Rick B.
Now, the stuff we want to look at, will eventually just come to us.
It's not a matter of what it's made of, it's a matter of how much of each constituent is present.
Much of the matter on Mars and Earth are similar, however the proportions are different. We know that any rock that has been on Mars for any great length of time (relative to the solar system) will have a certain percentage of certain chemical compounds due to the entropy of the matter and atmosphere. The same can be said for Earth, Mercury or any other rocky body that we have data on.
The Moon is a special circumstance, as it shared the Earth's entropy for a very long time prior to the great impact that dislodged the matter that eventually coalesced into Earth's rings and subsequent Moon. Because the chemical makeup and percentage of chemical compounds of the Moon is similar to that of Earth prior to organic life, we can assume it's local origin.
You said " if we visit and asteroid and determine it has similar chemical make-up. Must we conclude the asteroid came from Earth as well?" - if this ever happened, we might assume it came from Earth. You've never heard of this because it's never happened. We've found hundreds of thousands of meteorites and asteroids that have the same basic compounds as Earth, but none that share a makeup consistent with that of Earth. This is because they came from the same pile of matter the the solar system formed from, but they're evolutionary chain progressed differently.
"Martian Rocks Land In Morocco", yup. The little green dude totally killed opening for the Black Keys.
Ambiguous headlines, gotta love 'em.
Obviously, the rocks are red.
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice" -- God
Cut them a slack, man! Guy's trying to make a living! You think it's easy being an astrogeologist? How many wanted ads for astrogeologists do you see in your local newspaper?
Is it really? Do you suppose they would do something so stupid, when they could readily be countered?
While I do accept that we have meteorites that originated on various other bodies, in answer to the above I have to write "Why not? The Chinese regularly fake fossils".
So are we martians ?
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
Maybe you should read up on the formation of the solar system, if you are that interested. And while you are at it you may continue reading on the classification of meteorites. But it is just easier to just play dumb and vent you uninformed arse on Slashdot, isn't? Stop expecting everyone to shovel everything down your throat and put some effort in it yourself. This information is all readily available and scientists (or the press for that matter) are not obligated to repeat the basics of their discipline in every article they write just you can wrap your head around it, which wouldn't help anyway.
And you didn't do do your homework ; you came up with some pathetic excuse like blaming it on your dog digging your granny up so you had to have yet another granny-funeral. And the nice Ms Teacher castigated you in front of the class, calling you a lazy little so-and-so. And you felt bullied by Ms Teacher's unreasonable behaviour, and complained to Mummykins and Daddykins, who came to the school with their friend Mr Expensive from the company of Landshark and Ambulance-Chaser, Attorneys-at-Law ; and the expensive Mr Expensive forced Ms Teacher to apologise to you in front of the class and to pay him lots of money (a little money going to Mummykins and Daddykins, and a smidgin going to you).
Well the teacher was right ; you, Mummykins and Daddykins, and Mr Expensive were all in the wrong (though it's just barely credible that only Mr Expensive knew that at the time). You should have learned to do your fucking homework.
Now, in the words that the nice Ms Teacher should have used back then, "Fuck off and do your homework, you lazy little shit."
I love the smell of education in the morning. [SFX : Ride of the Valkyries.]
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Mind you, I'm not saying the rocks are not from Mars. But I really don't think we've got the data to make such conclusions. And I tend to chalk it up to "I want to get published Mommy".
It's the matter of "case closed" we're not open to alternatives or other thoughts. That's what I'm getting sick of. It's not the science I studied as a kid. Sure you could postulate an idea, test it, conclude that there was a potentiality. But in a game this big, such absolutes are in my book foolish.
I can't tell if you're trolling or being stupid. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not trolling.
You might not have the data, but the scientist team did. Thanks to their work we know the chemical composition of Mars rock. It's distinctive from Earth rock and moon rock. There is conclusive proof that these rocks are from Mars. What have you got up your sleeve that suggests the findings of this study are flawed?
As for the science you studied at school - I'm glad I didn't attend the same school as you. Science seeks to find the truth - it does so without being discriminative, and it does so conclusively. Anything can have "potentiality" - it's scientific study that allows us to prove.
If you have something to discredit this study, then by all means, let's all take a look.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
These rocks were stamped "Made on Mars."
The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. ....But still they come....
There are traces of Kryptonite and Vibranium running through them. MUST be from somewhere else.
This opens the door to the possibility that rocks from Earth could likewise end up on Mars, rocks containing organic material. I'm in no way saying this is proof of that, only that examining how rocks from Mars make it to Earth, could point us to understanding trans planetary pollination. Knowing how often things like this happen would be a correlation to the probability of life on Mars.
Mars is mostly CO2 and argon measured from Viking landerss. This is pretty distinctive for the solar system.
That does it! We HAVE to invade Mars if we're going to defeat these phantoms! Blow it all up!
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
The entrance wound is Hellas Basin and the exit wound is in the neighborhood of Olympus Mons/Tharsis neighborhood.
Deimos is prolly some mars guts, and the projectile is still inside.
Let's see that in CSI graphics!
Plus ca change, plus c'est les memes choses.
And again, ladies and gentlemen, a moron displays his ignorance. Note the breathtaking arrogance of this imbecile making sweeping statements about things he knows absolutely nothing.
The mind boggles. Please, Dear God, let him not procreate.
Congratulations! You are the most moronic idiot ever to grace the surface of this planet. Just because you are too stupid and lazy to study things or even look them up on Google, doesn't mean that scientists who, uh, do science for a living, share your stupendous lack of intellect.
Mysterious metal ball from space falls in Namibia
December 22nd, 2011
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/22/mysterious-metal-ball-from-space-falls-in-namibia/
Other similar cases not in the DIA documents were reported in Argentina and Mexico:
The ‘Space Balls’ – A case of mistaken identity
Dec 27, 2011
http://www.openminds.tv/the-space-balls-a-case-of-mistaken-identity-854/
The Mysterious Case of Two Spheres Falling to Earth in Australia and Brazil
March 28, 2008
http://www.universetoday.com/13387/the-mysterious-case-of-two-spheres-falling-to-earth-in-australia-and-brazil/