[meteorite-list] the dog is dead, still

From: peter scherff <peterscherff_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:27 2004
Message-ID: <001201c391d1$43dfaaf0$e92496d1_at_VALUEDD3F7D0D1>

Hi,

        I went to the new hall of meteorites at the AMNH in New York. I
thought that the description of the Nakhla would be of interest to the =
list:

A KILLER METEORITE

At 9:00 A.M. on June 28, 1911, a series of loud bangs was heard over a
village in Egypt. About 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of rock from the Nakhla
meteorite rained from the sky, in about 40 separate pieces. At the time, =
the
most unusual aspect of this meteorite was that one piece struck and =
killed a
dog. It wasn't until seven decades later that anyone realized that =
Nakhla
came from Mars.

When more meteorites similar to Nakhla were found, they were called
nakhlites. Two related groups, the shergottites and chassignites, were
similar enough that scientists concluded they came from the same parent =
body
as the nakhlites. Together they became known as the SNCs (pronounced
"snicks"), a name that now refers to all meteorites from Mars.


Thanks,

Peter Scherff
Received on Mon 13 Oct 2003 05:30:45 PM PDT