So this week was pretty regular except for Friday.
One of the Professors in our department gave a talk on Friday and I was able to attend. He studies meteorites for a living and just recently returned after a year of sabbatical at the Smithsonian Institute. He was one of the guys that got to decide what the mars rover is going to bring back from Mars. So anyway...long story short, super smart and gets to study rocks from Mars.
His talk was all about the latest meteorite to come from Mars. It landed in Morocco in 2011 and he managed to raise the funds to buy a small piece (he paid over $19,000 for less than 45 grams!). The part I found most interesting was how they determined it was from Mars. They melted bits of glass found within the meteorite that contained some left over atmosphere (it was sealed in there from the intense heat generated when the rock was ejected from the surface by an impact). They compared the composition of gasses contained in these bits of glass to what the rover is measuring on the Martian surface and they matched exactly! Too cool!
The best part of all though was after the talk was over, he let anyone who wanted to (provided you wore a glove) hold the meteorite. It was awesome! I was surprised though because out of the 30 or more people who attended, only six or so stuck around and not everyone who did stick around wanted to hold it. Opportunity missed for sure!
So anyway, I got to hold a 600 million year old rock that came from mars! Something to tell the grandkids for sure!
If you want to know more about it, here's a link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/10/12/mars-meteorite-quirks.html
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