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It's been called Tissint and it fell last July near Foumzgit, in Morocco. Thanks to several eyewitnesses, it was possible to recover almost 7 kg of fragments, the heaviest of which was just over 900g.
What is special about Tissint (one of the fragments shown above) is that it's only the fifth Martian meteorite seen falling to earth (the others were in 1815, 1865, 1911 and 1962), and is also the one that has been least exposed to terrestrial contamination.
It was classified as a Martian meteorite yesterday by the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science, a scientific society with a total of about 950 meteorite experts. The confirmation of the Martian origin of Tissint came from the close correspondence between the chemical composition of the meteorite and that of the Martian atmosphere. The fact that the meteorite is also volcanic and relatively young (a few million years) adds weight to the evidence from the chemical make-up.
Given that the rock is volcanic, and so has not been exposed for a long time to the primitive Martian environment, there is no chance of finding any evidence of life in fossil form. Nonetheless, the relatively pristine condition of Tissint has stimulated ferocious competition amongst would-be buyers, both private and institutional, with prices reaching $750 per gram. These kind of prices are perhaps less surprising if we consider that a total of only a hundred or so meteorites have ever been classified as Martian in origin, and their total weight is only just over 100 kilograms.
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by Michele Ferrara & Marcel
Clemens |
credit: AP Photo/Darryl Pitt, Macovich Collection |
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