Rare Mars Meteorites Discovered

LT4Ryan writes: "An article at CNN.com has news that rock hunters have discovered 5 new meteorites from the Red Planet. Apparently these rocks are quite valuable, grabbing $3,000 US per gram in Auctions."

3000$ a graham?

[Unknown Poltroon]

What, do you grind them up and snort them? Are mars rocks mother natures way of telling scientists you got too large a grant?

3K per gram ! ?

[jcasey]

"The pair hire nomads to search the desert for geological souvenirs from space. Mars rocks can fetch up to $3,000 per gram in auctions."

If I were a 'nomad' living in some underdeveloped country and somebody offered me that kind of money, you better believe I have Mars rocks, Moon rocks, alien bodies, eye witnesses to ufo encounters, craters and even magic beans!

Visible Mars Project

[cybrpnk]

Here's [totl.net] a whiff of Mars for a lot less than $3000 per gram...

Validity of meteorites.. from Mars?

[billn]

You know, last I checked, there weren't little green men on Mars chucking rocks back at us, despite our throwing various objects at them. While there is undoubtedly a Martian market for miniature Earthling ATV and Beach Ball Delivery Systems, where exactly do chunks of Mars come from, that are large enough to have a remainder of significant size, after atmospheric entry burns?

Re:Validity of meteorites.. from Mars?

[pease1]

Apparently in the distant past, there was at least one impact event on Mars that was large enough to have thrown a good amount of Martian material into solar orbit. The Earth has sweep this material up over the ions and some of the pieces have survived entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

A good bet for the impact location on Mars is the Hellas Basin region. Because this is a low area on the surface of Mars, it is often covered with frost and can be pretty easy to see with a telescope at certain times.

If you look at a globe of Mars [nasa.gov], it is interesting to realize that the massive volcanos of the Tharsis region is directly on the other side of the planet. In the image above, Hellas is the big crater to the lower right, Tharsis is left of center - look for four big "mountains."

A nice map as you see Mars in a telescope with markings labeled is here [nasa.gov]

And my drawings [ladyandtramp.com] of Mars. :-) I have a friend that owns a hunk of one of the known Martian rocks. Every now and then he lets me hold it if I buy him a beer.

These rocks have a chemical make up that is completely different then any other meteorites found on Earth. Chemical studies of Martian soil done by the Viking spacecraft in the 1970's comfirmed that these rocks come from Mars.

There are lunar meteorites also.

One use for meteorites... fancy knives!

[morcheeba]

This guy makes some neat knives out of meteorites [hiwaay.net]. The metal goes into decorative pieces, and in some of them, is the blade itself. I don't know if it's a better blade (probably not), but they look pretty and it's cool for someone who wants something... a bit different. Here's his description of his midnight knife [hiwaay.net]:

The bolsters are made from Gibeon nickel-iron meteorite which is acid etched to reveal the beautiful widmanstatten pattern seen only in meteorites. Widmanstatten patterns develop during the slow cooling of the iron core of a planetoid (asteroid). The handles are diamond cut from Renfrow stony meteorite. This meteorite exhibits a black stone matrix flecked with bright nickel inclusions, reminiscent of a starry sky. The spine and thumb-bob are inlayed with Albin stony-iron meteorite. This rare and fragile meteorite forms as molten nickel-iron flows around emerald green olivine crystals.

but a picture is worth a 1000 words [hiwaay.net].

He also has a knife/meteorite link page [hiwaay.net].

$3000/g???

[Tuxinatorium]

You could launch a mission to mars, bring back samples, and sell it for a profit at that price.

Mars Rocks

[AVIDLY INTERESTED]

Most people writing in reply to this news are pooh poohing the idea that a few rocks may hold any importance. Take a look at this story [nasa.gov]and it may jog your memory that it was in martian meteorites that there came the first good evidence for life on another planet. There are also theories that it was from Mars that life on our planet was 'seeded'. Without Martian meteorites there may have been no life on earth, and you know what that means? That's right, no Internet. So next time you laugh at a few rocks, remember how important studying this type of stuff really is.