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Mystery Meteorite May Not Be From Mercury After All

Posted by Soulskill on from the hailing-from-parts-unknown dept.

gbrumfiel writes "A strange green meteorite found in Morocco caused a stir in the press earlier this month, when scientists reported that it might be the first chunk of Mercury ever found here on earth. But scientists who've been puzzling over the stone since then say the accumulating evidence may point in a different direction. The 4.56-billion-year-old rock might have come from the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. If true, then it would provide clues about the origin of the solar system as a whole instead of the origin of the innermost planet."

18 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. does it matter? by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm sure if the ebay description just says "it's a green rock and it's from space," that'll be sufficient. Knowing specifically its potential history probably would only drive up the price from approximately 1 metric ass-ton of money to 1.1 metric ass-tons of money.

    1. Re:does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If I had enough money I would make a sword from it. http://xkcd.com/1114/

    2. Re:does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      does it matter?

      Of course it matters. We need to know where it came from so the US Congress can pass a law against any of them landing in the US. Most of these Congressional "geniuses" don't believe that the Earth, Solar System, Universe, etc are billions of years old. They'll want to ban any physical evidence that can be used to challenge their ignorance.

    3. Re:does it matter? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      does it matter?

      Of course it matters. We need to know where it came from so the US Congress can pass a law against any of them landing in the US. Most of these Congressional "geniuses" don't believe that the Earth, Solar System, Universe, etc are billions of years old. They'll want to ban any physical evidence that can be used to challenge their ignorance.

      This is a bizarre argument.
      First, assuming that all liberals=enlightened and all conservatives=ignorant and superstitious, this would mean that:
      1) The vast majority (thus able to ram their legislation through) of Congress is conservative. While it's true that currently Reps outnumber Dems overall, 289 vs 241,it's not all that wide a gap. Dems control the Senate.
      2) All conservatives/ republicans are christian fundies and believe in the young earth theory. In fact it's only a very small fringe group of xtians that believe in that ridiculousness. Hell, not even Pat Robertson believes it.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  2. Did the solar system originate as a hole? by fredrated · · Score: 1

    Need more information!

  3. Easy to determine by bobdehnhardt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Green rock, from outer space, found in northern Africa?

    Miss Tessmacher! Cancel the tickets to Addis Ababa! We're going to Morroco!

  4. Brainstorming here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Maybe they discovered a discarded prototype of Dell's $50 handheld computer?

  5. Headline: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Mysterious Moroccan Meteorite Maybe Mercurian

    1. Re:Headline: by ArsonSmith · · Score: 1

      More Meaningful Measurements Mean Maybe Misrepresented.

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  6. Yes, an asteroid should be more likely by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 1

    Good to see some sense.

    I'm also happy that that Russian metor didn't land in North or South Korea.

  7. Maybe it is from ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uranus

  8. How did they come to that anyhow? by pablo_max · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Seriously, why would they think they have any idea at all where it came from? Space is massive. There are chucks of rocks flying all over the place left over from the formation of our solar system. Not to mention other systems. We are blasted every single day with tons of space rocks. I am sure that there is a pretty high chance that none of it is coming from a planet but is rather coming from the millions of asteroids flying about.
    What, do they say, hey! this planet is also kinda that color, it must be from there since nothing else could possibly be that color also?

    1. Re:How did they come to that anyhow? by olsmeister · · Score: 2

      I think they check the composition and based on the types and quantities of minerals that are present, they can get an idea of what temperature environment the parent asteroid was formed in and hence its approximate distance from the sun. I'm sure they're not guessing based on color.

    2. Re:How did they come to that anyhow? by stevesliva · · Score: 4, Informative
      Maybe go read about it

      Your post reads like "How do they know some stars are planets anyways? What makes one sparkly thing in the sky different from all the rest? Unpossible to differentiate."

      --
      Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
    3. Re:How did they come to that anyhow? by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      I did read the article behind your link. Pretty astronomer :-))))

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    4. Re:How did they come to that anyhow? by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

      Reading that...

      That's important because it means it is a piece of a world that was large enough to have differentiated into a rocky mantle and a metal core.

      Could be us one day :)

      I can't seem to find anything on why it's green? I'm kinda curious...

    5. Re:How did they come to that anyhow? by femtobyte · · Score: 1

      Considering that current cosmological theories indicate that the mass-energy in the universe is ~5% ordinary matter, ~25% dark matter, and the other ~70% is Dark Energy, in one sense space is quite massive (about fourteen times more massive than all the "stars, planets, moons, dust, and the like" combined).

  9. Disingenuous or just dumb? by Squidlips · · Score: 1

    The vast majority of meteorites come from "the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter"....eeesh. And how can they tell; from the spectroscopic studies of asteroid...