Mystery Meteorite May Not Be From Mercury After All

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."

Comments

does it matter?

[slashmydots]

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.

Re:does it matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Easy to determine

[bobdehnhardt]

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

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

Re:How did they come to that anyhow?

[olsmeister]

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.

Re:How did they come to that anyhow?

[stevesliva]

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."