[meteorite-list] Lunar vs. Martian Meteorites

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Oct 3 14:11:47 2006
Message-ID: <DIIE.000000B600000E4B_at_paulinet.de>

Hello Listees and Listoids,

There are twice as many lunar meteorites in my collection than martian meteorites
and I've been asking myself several times why. We all know Mars is an extremely
interesting celestial body, especially because it is a much better candidate for the
existence of (microbial) life than, ... say Venus with its seething temperatures and
rains of sulfuric acid or our celestial neighbor, the Moon, with its tenuous atmosphere
that is virtually non-existant (compared to Earth's atmosphere).

Here's my very personal answer: Long before I started collecting meteorites, I used to
watch the starry sky with all its planets, stars, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, so
many other wondrous things, and, of course: the Moon, La Lune, Luna, der Mond.

Mars was seldom more than a tiny circular speck in my 8-inch Celestron telescope.
There were moments - seconds - when the seeing was so steady that I was able to
see the different hues and shades of planet Mars - a split-second later it was
gone and nothing was left but a blurry, fuzzy image in my eyepiece :-(

But whenever I point my telescope toward "la lune", it is always a true feast for the
eyes (even in bad seeing!), a celestial banquet of sorts and I often feel like delving
into the depths of lunar craters, rilles, flooded lava plains, rays, domes, and so much
more. I've always enjoyed those subtle color shades - dazzling white, light gray, dark
gray, the stark contrast between unlit crater-floors and their rims bathing in glaring
sunlight and all kinds of delicate in-betweens of hues, especially on the mare floors.

Our Moon is much closer to me - both in distance and emotionally than planet Mars and
it is an undescribable feeling of closeness, of nearness, of familiarness. So, when I
look at my lunars, especially my latest "Moon" (Norbert, Martin A., Stefan, and a few
others probably know which one I am talking about :-), when I hold it in my hands while
watching its progenitor up in the sky, then I feel like greeting a good, old friend so
far away and yet so near.

Best wishes,

Bernd
Received on Tue 03 Oct 2006 02:09:35 PM PDT