[meteorite-list] Possible Mars meteorite!
Francis Graham
francisgraham at rocketmail.com
Thu Jan 13 19:13:44 EST 2005
Hey, I'm gonna remind everyone on this list back in
early 2004 that I said on this list the rovers would
find Mars meteorites! Below a certain size, the thin
atmosphere of Mars would slow them below
hypervelocity, and since big meteorites are
comparatively rare, there should still be plenty of
small ones. I made a little calculation then based on
proportionality, even.
I knew it!
I don't have good hunches often, so I hope you
remember mine back then.
Francis Graham
--- "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com> wrote:
> What a coup if this find by Opportunity turns out to
> be a meteorite!
> Even if it isn't a meteorite, the rock looks very
> interesting -- not
> least for being all alone in the middle of nowhere.
>
> If it does in fact turn out to be a meteorite, this
> would make for an
> interesting entry in the Meteoritical Bulletin! One
> problem: no type
> specimen submitted. ;-) About all that will be
> known with extreme
> accuracy are the latitude and longitude (albeit
> Martian latitude and
> longitude). Upper and lower bounds on the mass can
> be estimated from
> the dimensions, and after grinding with the RAT and
> taking some
> lose-ups, they should be able to differentiate
> between iron, chondrite,
> achondrite, pallasite, mesosiderite, etc. If
> chondrules are visible,
> they might even be able to make an educated guess
> between H/L/LL or
> carbonaceous.
>
> One question: what do we call a meteorite found on
> Mars? "Martian
> meteorite" is ambiguous... --Rob
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