From: | watanabe@acs.ucalgary.ca (AUFORA News Update) |
Title: | OLDEST MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND |
Source: | AUFORA News |
Date: | March 09, 1996 |
oldest Martian meteorite to date.
The meteorite, named Allan Hills 84001, is around 4 billion years
old. It was found in Antartica by a team of scientists from Manchester
University and the American Museum of Natural History.
The meteorite is unique not only because it came from Mars (only
about a dozen other meteorites have been found which originated on Mars),
but also because it was by far the oldest Martian meteorite found. The
others were all around 1.3 billion years old.
The age of the meteorite coincides with the Lunar Cataclysm, a period
between 3.9 and 4.1 billion years ago in which the moon underwent massive
meteoric bombardment. Allan Hill 84001 is thought to have been ejected
from Mars through similar bombardment.
Some people feel that it is very possible that life (microbial)
origninated on other planets, and was then transferred to Earth. The
discovery of Allan Hill 84001 and other Martian meteorites shows that a
transport system does indeed exist.
Jack Farmer and David Des Marais from NASA's Ames Space Science
Division said in a recent report that "of the other planets in our solar
system, Mars holds the greatest potential for having developed
extraterrestrial life".
Ironically, life on Earth was thought to have originated on Earth
between 3.5 and 4.1 billion years ago.