[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:09:51 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <447532.59813.qm_at_web39601.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Ron, and List,

? First, thanks, Ron for another interesting post ( as usual ). I appreciate the time you take to keep us all informed on all the intriguing events you report on. Please keep it up.

? For those that may not remember, or have joined The List since, I posted a blurb back in 2007 from the Oct 1999 Sky and Telescope entitled :
" Meteorites on Mars", which read in part:

?**** When astronauts finally set foot on the red planet,
looking for meteorites will not be a high-priority
task.? ( Insert here by me:? WHAT!!!!??????;-)
 But they'll likely stumble across them anyway,
according to British researchers Phil A. Bland
(Natural History Museum) and Thomas B. Smith (Open
University). At the Lunar and Planetary Science
Conference last March, Bland explained that rocky
debris from the asteroid belt encounters Mars more
often, and at slower average speeds, than it does
Earth. He and Smith calculate that meteoroids in the
narrow mass range of 20 to 50 grams have a good chance
of surviving their atmospheric passage and landing
intact if they strike the Martian surface no faster
than about 2 kilometers per second. Once on the ground
the meteorites should remain recognizable as such for
upward of a billion years because chemical weathering
occurs thousands of times more slowly on Mars than it
does on Earth. Meteorites 1 to 2 centimeters across
should accumulate in sizable numbers, and future
astronauts can expect to find a handful of small
specimens in any given area the size of a baseball
diamond. "That little Sojourner rover should have
rolled over one or two of them," Bland notes. In some
locales even more meteorites will lie exposed because
the surface dust that once buried them is now gone, a
situation analogous to the gradual removal of ice in
parts of Antarctica.? *********

 Looks like the abstract only talked about " rocky" meteorites "1 to 2 centimeters" and "meteorites ranging from 20 to 50 grams". But as Ron's post today states, if this IS another meteorite, it will be the 4th, fairly sizable IRON meteorite imaged in only 14.5 miles distance covered by Opportunity. Unless all four of these ( they were all iron meteorites weren't they? ) are from the same fall (is that likely? ), looks like Mars IS a great place to look for meteorites, and not just small ones!

? Wouldn't that be just about THE ultimate dream for virtually every member of this list?? Not only to be ON Mars ( and picking up pieces OF Mars ) ..... but to also be finding meteorites ON Mars!!!???? ? ( Sigh )

? Best,
? Robert Woolard???

?

--- On Tue, 9/21/10, Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

> From: Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite
>











      
Received on Tue 21 Sep 2010 10:09:51 PM PDT