By: Jessica Berman
Have you heard of the big metaor that broke apart and crashed last July? Do you remember? Well if you do here is some really amazing news for you. The big metaur taht broke apart and crashed last July was form Mars!!! The space stones, probably broke free of the Red Planet by an ancient collision! The rare meteorites have been scooped from the African sands by collectors and dealers, who are selling them for thousands of dollars. The metaor fall through Earth's atmosphere last year was seen by the Moroccan nomads and military personnel. At about 2:00 A.M. (local time) on July 18, they were attacked by sonic booms and a fireball that a witness said "lit the shy with a yellow and green glow, before breaking into pieces and disappering into the remote desert". The pieces were only found in October when nomads found the black, hot meteor stones near the Moroccan village of Tissint. Soon after that samples of the stones were collected for analysis by scientists including the international committee of experts that confirmed that the meteor came from Mars. Experts predict that the meteor, officially named Tissint by the Meteorological Society, probably took millions of years to get here after an asteroid or some other large object collided with the Red Planet and exploded into thousands and thousands of chunks of the meteoroid into space. Pieces of meteor that hit the Earth totally weighted about 6.8 kilograms, with the largest weighting almost a kilogram. Christopher Herd a professor or Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Canada, who held the international committee meeting verified that the meteorites came from Mars. As soon as nomads discovered the stones, hunters moved in to snatch up pieces of the valuable rock which have been selling for 10 times the price of gold. Museums and scientists like Herb scrambled to get the pieces of meteoroid before all the highest bitter should buy them away. Herb says that this rock that struck Earth gave them the opportunity to study and learn about the Red Planted and explorer it even further. “We have an incredible array of technology at our disposal now, as opposed to 50 years ago, where we can analyze this rock in amazing detail," he said. "Plus, because it’s only been on Earth for a few months, which means that it hasn’t been tremendously affected by weather. So, what we analyze in these rocks is more likely to be Martian than from the Earth.” Experts say that only about 100 kilograms of verified Martian rocks are known to exist int he WORLD. " But none is in such high demand as last year's fiery gift from the Red Planet." is what Herb says as his conclusion. However this "accident" case is not closed and will continue to be explored.
Website- http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Scientists-Confirm-Martian-Origin-of-Moroccan-Meteorites-137622448.html
