[meteorite-list] iron martian meteorites

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:31:39 -0700
Message-ID: <50F5AE9B.2080004_at_alumni.caltech.edu>

On Earth, a "Martian meteorite" refers to a piece of Martian crust or
mantle knocked off that planet's surface and delivered to Earth. None
are iron, or likely to be since that would require a body colliding with
Mars with enough energy to penetrate to the core- something that hasn't
happened since very early in the history of the Solar System (if at all).

On Mars, a "Martian meteorite" refers to a piece of (probably)
asteroidal material that survived to the Martian surface (although a
piece of some other planet is also possible). These, of course, can be
iron just as ordinary meteorites on Earth can be, and some of the
meteorites observed on the Martian surface by our rovers are, in fact, iron.

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 1/15/2013 11:59 AM, steve arnold wrote:
> Hi list. I have been wondering this for a while. With all the martian
> meteorites found since 1997, I know they have been stones. Has any
> iron martian meteorites been found? I know the rovers up on mars has
> bumped into them. But am just wondering.Have a great day.
>
Received on Tue 15 Jan 2013 02:31:39 PM PST