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Second Mars Rock From Libya

SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN
MARCH 12, 1999

SECOND MARS ROCK FROM LIBYA

A brownish, coconut-size stone would ordinarily not attract much attention
from passersby. But finding such a rock in the bleak Al Jufrah region of
the Libyan Sahara Desert usually means it's a meteorite -- and
specifically, in the case of one recent find, a meteorite from Mars.
Provisionally designated Dar al Gani 489, the 2,146-gram specimen was
picked up sometime in 1997 or 1998 by an anonymous meteorite hunter.
According to Luigi Folco (University of Siena), the meteorite curator for
Italy's Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide, this stone contains key elements in
distinctive proportions that betray its Martian origin. Definitive
confirmation came from an analysis of its oxygen-isotopic ratios performed
by Ian Franchi (Open University). The new find is a weathered, heavily
shocked volcanic basalt with a makeup very similar to that of another
Martian stone found last year in its vicinity, suggesting that they are
pieces of the same parent object. If not, the discovery of Dal al Gani 489
brings the count of "free samples" from Mars to 14.

You'll find more about meteorites from Mars -- as well as the state of
other Mars research and an observing guide to the planet's apparition this
year -- in the April issue of SKY & TELESCOPE.

[snip]

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