Newly Found Meteorites Came From Mars, Scientists Confirm

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 13:30 in Astronomy & Space

Meteorite From Mars This is a 91-gram meteorite from Mars, discovered in December in Morocco. It fell to Earth last July. © 2012 Darryl Pitt/Macovich CollectionAct fast - they're selling quickly Meteorite chunks that fell in Morocco last summer came from Mars, yielding an unexpected 15-pound sample of the Red Planet, scientists confirmed Tuesday. It's the first time in 50 years - and only the fifth time ever - that scientists have chemically confirmed that pieces of rock came from Mars. The rocks were found in December and analyzed by a committee of meteorite experts. The biggest one weighs a little more than 2 pounds. It's a bonanza for scientists (not to mention collectors) who would love to get their hands on a fresh Mars sample return. These igneous rocks have probably been hurtling through the solar system for a few million years, so they're not fresh in terms of their Martian...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net