Confirmed: Meteorites Did Hit Earth From Mars…And They Cost 10x More Than Gold
- Posted on January 17, 2012 at 2:59pm by
Liz Klimas
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(Photo: AP/Darryl Pitt, Macovich Collection
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — You can count on one hand how many times scientists have said rocks falling from the sky were from Mars. A recent and rare invasion of meteorite chunks from the red planet found in Morocco last July have been confirmed by scientists Tuesday as truly Martian.
This is only the fifth time scientists have chemically confirmed Martian meteorites that people witnessed falling. The small rock refugees were seen in a fireball in the sky six months ago, but they weren’t discovered on the ground in North Africa until the end of December.
Scientists and collectors of meteorites are ecstatic and already the rocks are fetching big bucks because they are among the rarest things on Earth.
A Mars meteorite stone (shergottite) weighing 452.6 grams was found in 2000 in California. (Photo: Ron Baalke via NASA)
A special committee of meteorite experts, which includes some NASA scientists, confirmed the test results Tuesday. They certified that 15 pounds of meteorite recently collected came from Mars. The biggest rock weighs over 2 pounds.
Astronomers think millions of years ago something big smashed into Mars and sent rocks hurtling through the solar system. After a long journey through space, one of those rocks eventually landed here. It plunged into Earth’s atmosphere, splitting into smaller pieces and one chunk shattered into shards when it hit the ground.
This is an important and unique hands-on look at Mars for scientists trying to learn about the planet’s potential for life (Related: See The Blaze article about scientists finding the building blocks of DNA on a meteorite). So far, no NASA or Russian spacecraft have returned bits of Mars, so the only Martian samples scientists can examine are those that come here in a meteorite shower.
Watch this video from the University of Houston in 2010 about Martian meteorites and their scientific purpose:
Most other samples had been on Earth for millions of years — or at the very least decades — which makes them tainted with Earth materials and life. These new rocks, while still likely contaminated because they have been on Earth for months, are still more pure and better to study.
The last time a Martian meteorite fell and was found fresh was in 1962. All the Martian rocks on Earth add up to less than 240 pounds.
The new samples were scooped up by dealers from those who found them. Even before the official certification, scientists at NASA, museums and universities scrambled to buy or trade these meteorites.
“It’s a free sample from Mars, that’s what these are, except you have to pay the dealers for it,” said University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd, who heads the committee that certified the discovery.
He’s already bought a chunk of meteorite and said he was thrilled just to hold it, calling the rock “really spectacular.”
One of the key decisions the scientists made Tuesday was to officially connect these rocks to the July fiery plunge witnessed by people and captured on video. The announcement and naming of these meteorites — called Tissint — came from the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science, which is the official group of 950 scientists that confirms and names meteorites.
Meteorite dealer Darryl Pitt, who sold a chunk to Herd, said he charges from $11,000 to $22,500 an ounce and he’s sold most of his already. At that price, the new Martian rock costs about 10 times more per ounce than gold.
Check out this complete list of confirmed Martian meteorites.
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rwinger261
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 9:22pmMy common sense indicator went off when they said these rocks were from Mars. Unless they have something from Mars to compare it too, how can they possibly verify it? Beware when eggheads begin spouting their guesses as fact – it sometimes gives you culture-killing theories like “evolution”.
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 5:14pmgmoneytx
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:34pm
You know how the scientists confirmed this…they turned over the rock and it said “made on mars”
Report Post » gmoneytx Reply
R4M0N
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:21pm
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Now that joke was also worth more than gold.
Report Post »************************************
I love it!
moreteaplease
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 5:12pmAre these the same kind of scientists who would have us believe the global warming scheme…maybe even fudge climate data to try and prove it?
Rocks from Mars huh? Looks like a quick way to make a lot of money. Just grab some volcanic rock and pay some scientists to say ” Yeah man, it’s from Mars” and crank out a bunch of superfluous data that most people couldn’t understand anyway to make it look official and there you have it.
Cynical…who…me? Nah, never.
Report Post »gmoneytx
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:34pmYou know how the scientists confirmed this…they turned over the rock and it said “made on mars”
Report Post »R4M0N
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:21pmHAHAHAHAHA!!! Now that joke was also worth more than gold.
Report Post »11:11
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:28pmthat to me looks like a chunk of poopie
Report Post »TNT_Party
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:42pmMeteorline, bringing you the elements Goldline can’t
Report Post »charles4227
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 8:53amThe people of Mars left three years ago when Obama came to power, because they knew the earth would explode because of this idiot and they didn’t want to be around when all that Obama S___T hit there planet. Hay NASA do you have room for one more when you go back to the moon? I’ll trade a Mars Rock to pay for the fare!!
Report Post »ROMANS 10-9
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 8:38am.
Craigslist them all !
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:45amI wonder , what would a rock from Uranus be worth.
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:10amHold on ,if it came from uranus ,it would not be
Report Post »a meteorite,it would be an asstroide……………
Publius Novus
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 7:19amI don‘t care you y’are, that’s funny right there!
Report Post »o2nine17
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:42pmNow that is FUNNY !! , good post !
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 1:37pmAnd if asstroids were worth more than gold
Report Post »I would be sitting on a gold mine right now……………………………..
lobster
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:00amHey Ogle: They are basing it on the amount of CO2 in the rock. The same thing happens on earth from volcanic action.
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:52amLiberal Democrates have rocks for brains…I wonder how much those are worth?
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 1:05amnothin ………………they have to be rare
and sadly liberal idiots are just way too common
Report Post »lobster
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 1:57amAn ultraliberal friend of mine (phD) used to work for JPL told me the odds that the one in 1995 they “found” in Anarctica was 10 billion to one against it being from Mars. Whenever NASA is looking for funding (usually in Jan) they come up with some outlandish observation such as this.January was the same time they found the fake hole in the ozone that cost us in excess of a trillion dollars to get cleaned up. Why should space asteroids be any different from the locally grown materials? God made them from all the same building blocks. It is only the blockheads in Washington that don’t understand this.
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:40amI think the rock has more brains
Report Post »Old Truckers
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 10:49amLobster,
I’m with you on this one. Did the rock have a stamp on it, “Made in Mars” ?
This business of reckoning that asteroids came from planets is hard for me to accept. Just like their evolution theories, its all speculation.
Report Post »TheJeffersonian
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:32pm@Lobster
You completely dismiss the field of geology based on…. what, exactly? Scientists can confirm a meteorite’s Martian origins by comparing its elemental and isotopic composition to those of the Martian samples collected by the Odyssey, Viking, and Express missions. Your suggestion that they are composed of “the same building blocks” as materials on Earth is true on an atomic level, but is pointless to state because everything in the universe is composed of the same atoms. What’s far more important is WHICH “building blocks” are present and in what proportions. The science you’re dismissing is far, far better supported and researched than it seems you understand.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:30amIt reminds me of a headline from the Weekly World News (circa 1986): “Martian Big Game Hunters Wiped Out Our Dinosaurs”
Report Post »The “evidence”: a “Martian” meteorite near the fossilized skull of a dinosaur and the size of a hole in the skull was close to the size of the meteorite. Q.E.D.
Thevoice
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:13amI am really going to sit here and worry about a guess what Mars was like 4 billion years ago…..I’ll make it easy and they can all go and do something constructive…In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…See how simple that was….Now on to more important things…
Report Post »Pro-Palin
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:55pmOWS says share the rock….
Report Post »FreeManWalking
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:39pmmeesa thinks they are hording in on Al’s Carbon Credit scheme…
Shelia Jackson Lee is backing their claim, by saying “It is evident from rocks in the photo taken by the Mars Pathfinder of the flag Neil Armstrong planted on Mars in 1969, look just as hard as the Mars Meteorite”. She also complimented Nissan on making such a fine SUV worthy of space travel.
Report Post »Imsoright
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 6:01pmOh, thats funny!
Report Post »Patrick Henry II
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:12pmI have 10 tons of them and I will sell them for equal amounts of gold. It is a bargin, 90% off!!!
Report Post »Mizurax
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:19pmI’ve got rocks from all 9… 8, or 9, no 8… whatever… planets. All sitting in my back yard. Only $100 an ounce.
Report Post »Mizurax
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 11:03pmThey could say the rocks are from Pluto, and would anyone know the difference? Nope. How could they possibly know they’re from Mars? The nonsense that “science” tries to claim as fact has gotten to the point of hilarity.
Not that I don‘t think it’s cool. I’d love to own a space rock. I love staring at the stars and looking at the latest pictures from the Hubble telescope. I love seeing meteors in the sky. I loved watching the space shuttles launch. I love everything about space. I’m just not a stupid, mindless sheep.
Report Post »Oglethorpe1983
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 12:20amActually, they can tell the difference quite easily (mainly by the chemical composition of the rocks: i.e. the presence or lack-there-of of certain trace elements, and the ratio of more common elements) They know what “Earth Rocks” look like, as well as the general composition of “Martian Rocks” due to various previous experiments and analysis of Martian Soil ect….
As for your second point about what science is trying to prove… there is no problem with science and religion co-existing…. Science does not take away from religion in any way, shape or form. and claiming that believing in science makes one a “mindless stupid sheep” is a pretty ignorant comment if I can say so myself.
Report Post »Mizurax
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 7:40amI did not say that believing in science makes someone a stupid mindless sheep. I said that believe something simply because some scientist said it makes someone a stupid mindless sheep. Case in point: global warming.
And you’re saying that the chemical composition of a rock can say with 100% accuracy where a rock came from? I don’t think so. It might be able to eliminate some possibilities, and it may be able to say with some probability where a rock came from. But there’s no way to be 100% sure.
Report Post »TheJeffersonian
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:34pmGiven the similarities in the composition of the meteorites to samples collected on missions to Mars, we can conclude with certainty that if the meteorites did not come from Mars, they came from another planet with nearly identical composition. Since we don’t know of any of those within thousands of light years, it is far, far more likely they came from the planet close to us than a hypothetical planet a vast distance away.
Report Post »Mizurax
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 4:06pmI have more points I could argue, but it’s just not worth the time. Go ahead and continue to believe everything out of the mouth of anyone who calls their self a scientist. I’ll continue to question everything.
Report Post »TheJeffersonian
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 11:08pmHere’s the data involved:
Report Post »A meteorite shower was observed. Several months later, meteorite fragments were discovered in the area of the meteorite shower sighting. These fragments are composed of elements in proportions completely unlike any others from the surrounding area or, indeed, the entire planet. However, they are composed of the same materials in the same ratios as the Martian rocks we have observed.
You’re free to conclude whatever you like from that, but everything from common sense to Occam’s Razor indicates that the rocks in question are Martian in origin.
JUSTDOUGIE
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 10:15pmNASA is behind the the global warming hoax too. In my opinion, we are being attacked by intergalactic cooling, or IGC (record winter storm is approaching the PNW right now). Perhaps we should funnel five trillion dollars into conservative organizations to combat this latest and obviously man made phenomena that obama inherited. Newt, where are ya on this?
Report Post »READRIGHTHERE
Posted on January 18, 2012 at 3:17amDon’t bother him, he is asleep on the COUCH.
Report Post »