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Conglomerate Rock From Mars: (Much) More Precious Than Gold
An anonymous reader writes It's the oldest rock on Earth--and it's from Mars. A 4.4-billion-year-old martian meteorite, found in a dozen pieces in the western Sahara, has ignited a frenzy among collectors and scientists; prices have reached $10,000 a gram, and museums and universities are vying for slivers of it. It is the only known martian meteorite made of sediment, a conglomerate of pebbles and other clumps of minerals from when the planet was warm, wet, and possibly habitable. The story of the discovery of the rock and its significance is fascinating, as well as the details presented about the economics of rare space materials. Apropos, this older story about missing moon rocks.
I think I've seen that movie before...
So it's the Johnson & Johnson rock?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
The price is still far from the cost of going to Mars to dig some sedimentary rocks from a few meters deep. But it's getting closer.
I haven't read how they know it's from Mars, just how exactly do they know?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I have never understood why they can be convinced that a random rock they find in the desert is actually from Mars. Sure, you can tell if something is a meteorite and you might be able to posit trajectories,but it's not like Marvin the Martian stood next to the rock to vouch for its authenticity.
Yes, there's a non-zero probability of the asteroid-hits-Mars-and-ejectum-lands-on-Earth scenario, and the rocks may have properties consistent with conditions measured by the Viking lander, but it is magical thinking to hold that such a rock definitely came from Mars.
As expensive as Black Beauty has become, it is still a bargain compared with proposals for a robotic Mars sample return mission.
Well, if you want to get a rock you know came from Mars, you'll have to send that probe.
And of course, the Russians didn't expose the hoax because they were in on it: Sputnik was just as fake as the so-called "satellites" of today.
I'll just wait for the Mars Sample Return Project to saturate the market, thereby lowering the price.
Oh, you mean like Nickelback?
It's time to come clean.
We were all in on it except for MagickalMyst.
Should we send one of the Rosswell IFO's to pick him up and take him to emperor Elvis for briefing?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Indeed.
Whilst the upper echelons of society compete with each other, they co-operate when it comes to herding the masses.
They are the dark magicians who rule the world by deceit and trickery - and have for aeons.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet, but something doesn't make sense. The rock is 4.4 billion years old, but is the oldest rock on earth? The rocks it impacted must thus have been older than that, or else it would have just been absorbed into the molten ball that was the earth. Also the article says it began its journey 5 billion years ago - so before it existed?
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
There is zero chance the landings were faked. Heck, the landing sites and rover tracks have been photographed from moon orbit, but this is just part of the mountain of evidence that the moon landings were real.
I wish that Buzz Armstrong would punch out all the British loonies that are pushing the moon hoax baloney
No need. Elvis is in the building.
Hey, where did my jelly beans go?
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Revelation 6:13
And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.
Meh, doesn't seem too problematic.
Unless you know of any figs that weight 10^30kg and burn at 50K, that is.
"However, if your belief is that the Apollo moon landings were legitimate, then please explain to me how the astronauts got through the Van Allen belt?"
Uh, really simple. It's just an electro-magnetic field that has protons and electrons. We go through stronger magnetic fields getting an MRI done.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Your first point is pure speculation.
Your second point is answered plainly on wikipedia:
"The Apollo missions marked the first event where humans traveled through the Van Allen belts, which was one of several radiation hazards known by mission planners.[28] The astronauts had low exposure in the Van Allen belts due to the short period of time spent flying through them.[29] The command module's inner structure was an aluminum "sandwich" consisting of a welded aluminium inner skin, a thermally bonded honeycomb core, and a thin aluminium "face sheet". The steel honeycomb core and outer face sheets were thermally bonded to the inner skin."
source
But you aren't interested in evidence or truth, but rather you are interested in keeping your silly little conspiracy theory alive. It must make you feel important or something.
Grow up, dude.
It's either really fricking cold figs, or Slashdot erasing the [degrees] symbol.
- 2.5 times more expensive that weapon grade plutonium
- twice cheaper than Soliris (medical drug)
- 3 times cheaper than tritium
LSD and diamonds can also be in this price range but this is a bit more complicated to estimate.