Chunk of Mars Found at South Pole

[g3nu1n3]

Chunk of Mars Found at South Pole

*A team of NASA-sponsored meteorite hunters has discovered what it believes is an ancient chunk of Mars – on Earth. *

The team of Antarctic explorers came across the 1.5-pound black rock last December while scouring for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains, about 466 miles from the South Pole. A subsequent analysis by the Smithsonian Institution revealed that the rock’s mineralogy and texture are “unmistakably Martian,” according to a statement released Wednesday by NASA.

The rock likely exploded off the surface of the red planet during an asteroid impact about 11 million years ago, NASA said. After speeding through space for an unknown period, it eventually burned through Earth’s atmosphere and landed in Antarctica, where it has remained until now as a time capsule full of information about Mars.

Scientists believe the discovery will not only give them a better understanding of the terrain that NASA’s Mars rovers are currently exploring, but that it may also help them get glimpses of what Mars’ atmosphere is like. The meteorite contains tiny pockets of trapped gas, which an analysis shows to be similar to gas detected on Mars itself by NASA’s Viking probes in 1976.

Until now, only 28 Martian meteorites were known to have been discovered on Earth, according to NASA. December’s find is considered to be especially rare because it belongs to a group of Martian meteorites known as Nakhlites – volcanic rocks that formed more than 1.3 billion years ago in a Martian lava flow. There are only eight known Nakhlites in the world, including this one. The first was found in Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911.

The latest meteorite was found by the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program, which is sponsored by NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. Antarctica is considered an ideal place to search for meteorites because they stand out against the bluish-white snow that covers much of the continent, and because most of the rocks formed on Earth are buried nearly two miles under that snow.

The Martian meteorite will now be stored and managed by the Astromaterials Curation department at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, where all of NASA’s samples are kept.

Link : Click Here

[g3nu1n3]

Here is the same story from a different source.

While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching for clues to its past, researchers have uncovered another piece of the red planet in the most inhospitable place on Earth – Antarctica.

The new specimen was found by a field party from the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET) on Dec. 15, 2003, on an ice field in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic Mountains, roughly 750 km (466 miles) from the South Pole. This 715.2-gram (1.6-pound) black rock, officially designated MIL 03346, was one of 1358 meteorites collected by ANSMET during the 2003-2004 austral summer.

Discovery of this meteorite occurred during the second full field season of a cooperative effort funded by NASA and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance recovery of rare meteorite types in Antarctica, in the hopes new martian samples would be found.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History involved in classification of Antarctic finds said the mineralogy, texture and the oxidized nature of the rock are unmistakably martian. The new specimen is the seventh recognized member of a group of martian meteorites called the nakhlites, named after the first known specimen that fell in Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911.

Like the other martian meteorites, MIL 03346 is a piece of the red planet that can be studied in detail in the laboratory, providing a critical “reality check” for use in interpreting the wealth of images and data being returned by the spacecraft currently exploring Mars. Following the existing protocols of the U.S. Antarctic meteorite program, scientists from around the world will be invited to request samples of the new specimen for their own detailed research.

Nakhlites are significant among the known martian meteorites for several reasons. Thought to have originated within thick lava flows that crystallized on Mars approximately 1.3 billion years ago, and sent to Earth by a meteorite impact about 11 million years ago, the nakhlites are among the older known martian meteorites. As a result they bear witness to significant segments of the volcanic and environmental history of Mars.

The U.S. Antarctic Meteorite program is a cooperative effort jointly supported by NSF, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Antarctic field work is supported by grants from NASA and NSF to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; initial examination and curation of recovered Antarctic meteorites is supported by NASA at the astromaterials curation facilities at Johnson Space Center in Houston; and initial characterization and long-term curation of Antarctic meteorite samples is supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

For Pictures and Details: http://www.astrobio.net/news/print.php?sid=1088

[NeSCio]

it’s a very good find.:k: definitely will bring more insight into how it is on Mars. I’m qute interested in the analyzing techniques they use on this stone. How will they know that e.g. a certain mixture they find in the stone is representative of the Martian and not contamination from the Earth? Although undoubtably very informative I cannot but think that a lot of the theories of extraterrestrial space are very speculative. How did they make the estimation of the 11 million years? How sure are they that the radioactive material didn’t degrade more after the impact or so?

anyone have more info?