116 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fossil Meteorites Over a century ago, astronomer H.W .M . Olbers (of Olbers Paradox fame) remarked that meteorites are extremely rare in the fossil record. While meteorites are found in profusion in some specially favored surface deposits (Antarctica and Australia's Nullarbor Plain), there are very few records of any being found in the immense volumes of coal, gold ores, and other geological materials that have been mined down the centuries. Of course, many meteorites escaped the notice of miners who were looking for something else. Nevertheless, few have been reported from strata more than a few thousand years old. (See ESI8 in Neglected Geo logical Anomalies.) It is therefore surprising that a veritable lode of fossil meteorites has been found in a limestone quarry at Kinnekulle, in southern Sweden. "During the sawing of a few thousand cubic meters of Ordovician limestone into 2-3 cm thick slices, 25 fossil meteorites have been found. All meteorites, except, four, have been found in a 60 cm thick bed called the Archaeologist. This bed represents a few hundred thousand years and contains several hard ground surfaces...Many of the Archaeologist meteorites are prominently angular in shape whereas others are round. This seems difficult to reconcile with an atmospheric breakup of a single large meteorite." B. Schmitz and M. Tassinari, the authors of this paper, suggest that this rare concentration of fossil meteorites ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Antarctic Meteorite May Have Been Blasted Off The Moon Meteorite ALHA 81005, discovered in the snowy wastes of Antarctica about a year ago, clearly resembles some of the rocks brought back from the moon by the Apollo astronauts. First, the meteorite's isotope ratios echo those found in bona fide moon rocks. Second, the meteorite is a breccia, consisting of small chunks cemented together, some of which are pinkish, magnesium-aluminum-rich spinels sometimes seen in lunar rocks but not terrestrial rocks or ordinary meteorites. Anorthosite is also present -- a type of rock found on the earth and moon but not ordinary meteorites. The implication is that ALHA 81005 was blasted off the moon by a comet or big meteorite. It escaped the moon's gravitational field, was captured by the earth, and plunged into the Antarctic snows. (Eberhart, J.; "Early Hints at a Moonish Meteorite," Science News, 123:54, 1983.) Comment. Geologically speaking, the ice and snow of Antarctica are fairly recent. This meteorite may then be evidence of recent astronomical catastrophism that might also have affected the earth. Reference. Anomalous meteorites are cataloged in Section AYE in The Sun and Solar System Debris. A descrption of this book is located here . From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Missing Martian Meteorites Scientists scouring the Antarctic snowy wastes have collected 13 so-called SNC meteorites, which by virtue of their compositions are likely from Mars. These tiny chunks are believed to have been blasted off the Martian surface by five or six impacts of much larger meteorites. All save one of these Martian meteorites have formation ages of about 1.3 billion years. The only part of the Martian surface believed to be 1.3 billion years old is the TMOM (Tharsis Montes and Olympus Mons) region. The rest of Mars -- about 90% of it is much older. To have 12/13ths. of the Martian meteorites originate from 1/10th. of the planet's surface is highly unlikely. Something is wrong somewhere; probably a bad assumption. And what about that 13th. meteorite that did not get ejected from the TMOM region? This is ALH 84001, the controversial meteorite that contains strange worm-like structures resembling terrestrial bacteria. (See SF#130, #116, #110, #108, and #101.) (Taylor, Richard L.S ., and Mittlefehldt, David W.; "Missing Martian Meteorites," Science, 290:273, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Disparity Between Asteroids And Meteorites Since the meteorites we pick up on earth (Antarctica and elsewhere) are thought to have come from pulverized asteroids, it is something of a shock to find profound dissimilarities between asteroids and meteorites. "The problem is that while reflectance spectra of some meteorites measured in the laboratory appear to correspond to spectra of various asteroids, the S class, which makes up about half of all asteroids in the inner belt, doesn't appear to match any common meteorite class, and conversely, common meteorite classes (e .g ., Ordinary Chondrites) appear to match only a few asteroids." (Harris, Alan W.; "Asteroid 29 Amphitrite Is a Topic of Interest," Geotimes, 30:25, June 1985.) Comment. Note that the visual meteors or shooting stars that burn up high in the atmosphere are believed to be cometary debris (SF#44) and mostly ice and dust. The meteors large and substantial enough to make it through the atmosphere and arrive at the surface as meteorites must have a different source -- something more palpable, such as the asteroids, but the spectral disparities reported above may force a reevaluation of this theory. From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why are antarctic meteorites different?Here's the problem: "Differences exist between Antarctic and non-Antarctic meteorites, and the significance of this is only now beginning to be recognized. Dennison et al point out that relative to non-Antarctic falls, the Antarctic population is underabundant in iron and stony iron meteorites, among others." Trace-element studies: ". .. demonstrate a statistical unlikelihood that both sample populations derive from the same parent population." One reason for the differences is that the Antarctic ice has been accumulating meteorites for many thousands of years longer than modern man has been picking up non-Antarctic meteorites. (Lipschutz, Michael E., and Cassidy, William A.; "Antarctic Meteorites: A Progress Report," Eos, 67:1339, 1986.) Comment. If Antarctic meteorites differ because they impacted the earth over a longer span of time, it must be that the meteor population in the vicinity of the earth has been changing. Why? From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A METEORITIC EVENT LAYER IN ANTARCTIC ICE "Where the East Antarctic icesheet meets the Transantarctic Mountains, old, deep glacial ice is tilted upward and exposed. Within this visible cross section of the icesheet, layers of dark volcanic tephra serve as stratigraphic markers and datable age horizons. Systematic sampling of these layers at a well-known meteorite collection site (the Allan Hills Main Icefield) has revealed a band consisting of unusually dark and rounded particles, many of which are spheroidal. This debris layer (BIT-58) extends parallel to the stratigraphy of the ice established from the tephra bands, and thus apparently marks a single depositional event. Several kilograms of ice from two sites along this band were subsequently collected and melted, yielding a few grams of sediment for further study." Microscopic examination and microprobe analysis led to the following conclusions: "Although direct evidence of an extraterrestrial origin for this debris layer (such as the presence of cosmogenic 10 Be and 26Al) has not yet been obtained, the available data strongly suggest that this sediment originated as meteoritic spallation debris. This debris is distinct from other Antarctic 'cosmic dust' collections by virtue of its uniform, recognizable, ordinary chondrite composition and the consistent relation shown between grain size and texture. The BIT-58 layer probably originated from a single transient event, the passage and/or impact of a single large meteorite over the East Antarctic icesheet." (Harvey, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Antarctic Meteorites Are Different The thousands of meteorites rescued from the Antarctic ice are markedly different from those collected elsewhere on our planet. First, the Antarctic collections contain rare types that seem to have come from the moon and perhaps Mars. Second, the trace elements in the Antarctic specimens differ substantially from those found elsewhere. Age is a third distinguishing parameter. The Antarctic specimens seem to have been residing on and in the ice for some 300,000 years. Almost all meteorites collected elsewhere are less than 200 years old, having been picked up soon after they fell. The implication is that those extraterrestrial projectiles that have accumulated in Antarctica had a different source. (Dennison, Jane E., et al; "Antarctic and non-Antarctic Meteorites Form Different Populations," Nature, 319:391, 1986.) Comment. A dedicated catastrophist would ask what extraterrestrial event occurred 300,000 years ago? Did it involve the moon? Was terrestrial life, including humans, affected? From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Nullarbor Lode For the last few hundred years people have been picking up sparsely strewn meteorites all over the planet. But Antarctic explorers, within the last few decades, found that thousands of meteorites have been concentrated in the ice of the southernmost continent. Even more recently, the desolate, desert-like Nullarbor (" no-trees") Plain, in Southern Australia, has been discovered to be another concentrated source of of meteorites. There may be millions there. The problem is that only 2.9 % of them are iron meteorites, whereas those picked up in recent years around the planet-atlarge are 4.8 % irons. The meteorites from the Antarctic lode, on the other hand, weigh in with only 2.2 % irons. Why the marked differences? Could it be age? The Antarctic meteorites seem to be up to a million years old; those of Nullarbor, perhaps 16,000-18,000 years. (Anonymous; "A Meteorite Bounty from Down Under," Sky and Telescope, November 1991.) Comment. Perhaps pertinent is the observation that fossil meteorites are essentially nonexistent in geological formations older than a million years. This is an anomaly of itself! From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Possible Chain Of Meteorite Scars In Argentina A string of linear depressions characterizes the Rio Cuarto crater field In the January 16, 1992, issue of Nature, P.H . Schultz and R.E . Lianza describe a curious chain of grooves incised in the Argentine pampas near Rio Cuarto. "During routine flights two years ago .. ., one of us (R .E .L .) noticed an anomalous alignment of oblong rimmed depressions (4 km x 1 km) on the otherwise featureless farmland of the Pampas of Argentina. We argue here, from sample analysis and by analogy with laboratory experiments, that these structures resulted from lowangle impact and ricochet of a chondritic body originally 150-300 m in diameter." There are ten gouges in all, strung out along 50 kilometers. The scars are young, perhaps only a few thousand years old, well within the time of human habitation. Schultz and Lianza also found pieces of meteoritic rock and glassy fragments of impact melt. (Schultz, Peter H., and Lianza, Ruben E.; "Recent Grazing Impacts on the Earth Recorded in the Rio Cuarto Crater Field, Argentina," Nature, 355:234, 1992. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Meteorite Hopscotched across Argentina," Science News, 141:55, 1992.) Comments. Note the similarities to the much more numerous Carolina Bays. See ETB1 in our catalog ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life Forms In Meteorites?Few could have escaped the recent gushy press coverage of NASA's announcement that an Antarctic meteorite, possibly of Martian origin, seems to have carried vestiges of life forms from that planet to ours. No need to recapitulate all that hype. What we do add is the observation that this same sort of excitement has swept through the scientific community at least twice before. Back in 1961, B. Nagy et al discovered tiny particles resembling fossil algae in carbonaceous chondrites. They called these particles "organized elements." Ultimately, these curious particles were explained as natural crystals and terrestrial contaminants. (Ref 1.) Much earlier, in 1881, Hahn, an eminent German geologist, asserted that he had examined thin sections cut from chondrites and found fossils of sponges, corals, and crinoids. In fact, the extraterrestrial coral that Hahn found even received the scientific name Hahnia meteoritica ! In the end, though, Hahn's meteoric life forms met the same fate as the "organized elements" of Nagy et al. (Ref. 2) Ref. 1. Urey, Harold C.; "Biological Materials in Meteorites: A Review," Science, 151:157, 1966. Ref. 2. Bingham, Francis; "The Discovery of Organic Remains in Meteoritic Stones," Popular Science Monthly , 20:83, 1881. Both references can be found in our Handbook Mysterious ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Meteorites Also Transport Organic Payloads Excerpts from the Abstract of a paper printed in Nature: "Much effort has been directed to analyses of organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites because of their implications for orgainc chemical evolution and the origin of life. We have determined the isotopic composition of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon in amino acid and monocarboxylic extracts from the Murchison meteorite. .. .. . "These results confirm the extraterrestrial origin of both classes of compounds, and provide the first evidence suggesting a direct relationship between the massive organo-synthesis occurring in interstellar clouds and the presence of pre-biotic compounds in primitive planetary bodies." (Epstein, S., et al; "Unusual Stable Isotope Ratios in Amino Acid and Carboxylic Acid Extracts from the Murchison Meteorite," Nature, 326:477, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The solar-system dust bin For hundreds of thousands of years, miscellaneous rocky debris swirling around the sun has been falling upon the icy wastes of Antarctica. The motion of Antarctica's ice sheet carries these meteorites conveyor-belt fashion out towards the encircling seas. But where Antarctic mountains get in the way, the rocky cargo tends to get concentrated. Several thousand meteorites have already been picked up at these favored spots. In just a few brief summers of searching, these massive finds have posed unexpected questions. Here is a sampling. The terrestrial ages (times since arrival on earth) measure between 1,000 and 700,000 years, implying that the Antarctic ice sheet may be at least 700,000 years old. This is unfortunate for several proposed scenarios of recent catastrophism, which envision an iceless Antarctica. At least 20 amino acids appear in the more than 40 carbonaceous chondrites picked up with sterile equipment. These meteorites are dated as 4.5 billion years old, or 1 billion years older than the earliest terrestrial life found in the rocks. These finds highlight the old question: Did meteorites seed life on earth? The much-publicized "lunar" meteorite, supposedly blasted out of the moon's crust by asteroid impact, thence falling to earth, shows little evidence of mechanical shock. If this meteorite, with a composition so similar to the Apollo samples is not from the moon, where ...
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... Laws ABS6 The Quantized Nature of Orbital Systems AC COMETS ACB ORBITAL ANOMALIES OF COMETS ACB1 The Appearance of Comets in Cycles ACB2 Nonrandom Direction-of-Approach of Comets to the Sun ACB3 New Comets Have Almost Critical Velocity ACB4 Sun-Grazing Comets: The Kreutz Group ACB5 Changing Cometary Periods ACB6 Jupiter's Family of Comets ACB7 Low-Eccentricity Cometary Orbits ACB8 The Scarcity of Hyperbolic Orbits ACB9 Cometary Groups ACB10 Orbits of New Comets Diverge from Common Point ACB11 Excess of Retrograde Long Period Comets ACB12 Uranus-Neptune Region Favored as Comet Source ACB13 Cometary Perturbations Suggestive of Planet X ACB14 Rapid Attrition of the Oort Cloud by Molecular Clouds ACB15 Dynamical Improbability of the Oort Cloud ACO OBSERVATIONAL ANOMALIES OF COMETS ACO1 Two-Dimensional Comet Tails ACO2 Cometary Activity Far from Solar Influence ACO3 Comets without Nuclei ACO4 Absence of Meteorites from Comet-Related Showers ACO5 Contraction of Cometary Comas as the Sun is Approached ACO6 Unexplained Abundance of Short-Period Comets ACO7 Persistence of Long-Period Comets Despite Attrition from Molecular Clouds ACO8 Seriality of Cometary Apparitions ACO9 Multiple Tails and Antitails ACO10 Ejection of Spherical Halos ACO11 Correlation of Terrestrial Auroras and the Phenomena of Distant Comets ACO12 Blinking Comets ACO13 The Anomalous Disappearance of Comets ACO14 Anomalous Brightening of Short-Period Comets ACO15 Comet Reflectivities Are Similar to Those of Asteroids ACO16 Some Cometary Light Curves Resemble Those of Asteroids ACO17 New Comets Exhibit Different Brightening Behavior Than Old Comets ACO18 Anomalous Splitting of Comets ACO19 Tail-Wagging Comets ACO20 Cometary Outbursts ACO21 Comet Attrition Rates Imply Youth ACO22 No Ices in Cometary Reflection Spectra ACO23 The Blackness of Cometary Nuclei ACX OCCULTATIONS BY COMETS ACX1 Cometary Tails: Anomalous Occultations of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 65: Sep-Oct 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fossil from mars?Who would have thought that the dreary Antarctic wastes would harbor a piece of Mars, much less a fossil of Martian life? Yet, British scientists, I.P . Wright et al, in Nature, come close to such a conclusion. "The meteorite EETA 79001, which many believe to have originated on Mars, contains carbonate minerals thought to be Martian weathering or alteration products. Accompanying the carbonates are unexpectedly high concentrations of organic materials (defined here as carbonaceous matter that has a low stability towards oxidation, and so combusts at less than 600 C; the term 'organic' does not necessarily imply an origin by biogenic processes.) Although the carbon isotope composition of these materials is indistinguishable from terrestrial biogenic components, and so cannot be used to assess the source, we argue here that their occurrence in an interior sample of a clean Antarctic meteority militates against a wholly terrestrial origin. A sample of Martian organic materials may thus be available for further study in the laboratory." (Wright, I.P ., et al; "Organic Materials in a Martian Meteorite," Nature, 340: 220, 1989.) But there are many "buts": Meteorite EETA 79001 may not have come from Mars after all, even though many scientists think it did. The organic material in EETA 79001 may have come instead from the comet that supposedly blasted the meteorite into space from the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ice "meteorites" fall When chunks of ice much larger than those oftenreported "softballsized" hailstones fall, they are termed "hydrometeors." Many hydrometeors have been reported in the meteorological journals. (See GWF1 in Tornados, Dark Days...*) While some of these large chunks can be blamed on aircraft with leaky toilets, many others cannot be explained so easily. Some may truly come from deep space. Seeing that comets and Saturn's rings are composed mostly of ice, there seems to be no shortage of ice in outer space. It is therefore strange that air-craft are routinely blamed for all falls. A Reuter's dispatch from Beijing has described a recent triplet of possible hydrometeors: "Chinese experts have recovered what they believe to be chunks of meteoric ice that fell to Earth in Zhejiang Province, Xinhua news agency said. Amateur geologist Zhong Gongpei was nearby March 23, when farmers saw three large chunks of ice crash with a whoosh into paddy fields at Yaodou village, Xinhua said late Saturday. .. .. . "' According to witnesses, it fell with a 'whoo-ing' sound, with a cloudy streak, then came crashing down into three fields about one kilometre apart," Xinhua said." "Zhong rushed to the scene, recovered two pieces and sent both to Purple Mountain [Observatory] on March 29 with the aid of a frozen- ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Extraterrestrial Handedness Human life forms favor right-handedness over left-handedness by a 9:1 ratio. Other terrestrial animals are also asymmetrical in various ways. But on the molecular level, terrestrial biochemistry is all left-handed. As far as scientists can determine, only left-handed amino acids are incorporated into proteins. In nonlife (if such a state really exists), amino-acid molecules are right- and lefthanded in equal numbers -- as least this has been the theory up until now. Amino acids are found in substances we assume are non-life or of abiotic origin. In fact, amino acids are present in meteorites, often in substantial amounts. They are profuse in Australia's Murchison meteorite, a carbonaceous chondrite. However, analysis of the Murchison's amino acids indicates that there are slightly more (7 -9 %) left-handed than right-handed amino acids present. This extraterrestrial handedness is of great import to both cosmologists and biologists, because the carbonaceous chondrites are thought to have formed 4.5 billion years ago -- long before life on earth originated. Furthermore, some of the Murchison's amino acids have never been found in terrestrial life, and they are also slightly left-handed. For some unfathomed reason, chemical and biological evolution both tilt to the left! (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Extraterrestrial Handedness?" Science, 275:942 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 62: Mar-Apr 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects DANCING TO THE COMETS' TUNE "When planetary scientists examine one kind of meteorite rich in iron, the H-chondrites, they find that the meteorites' ages do not spread evenly through time. Instead, the ages seem to cluster at 7 and 30 million years." Astronomers have hitherto been content to attribute these clumped ages to collisions among the meteorites' parent bodies - the asteroids - which ply periodic orbits. However, S. Perlmutter and R.A . Muller, at Berkeley, point to the apparent 26- to 30-million-year periodicities of three terrestrial phenomena: Biological extinctions in the fossil record, Magnetic field reversals, and Terrestrial-crater ages. Could there be a connection between the clumped meteorite ages and these terrestrial phenomena? Perlmutter and Muller propose that all of these phenomena are the consequence of periodic storms of comets that invade the inner solar system from the direction of the Oort Cloud of comets that purportedly hovers at the fringe of the solar system. These comets not only devastate the earth but also collide with the asteroids, knocking off those bits and pieces we call meteorites. (Anonymous; "Do Meteorite Ages Tell of Comet Storms?" Astronomy, 17:12, January 1989.) Comment. Unanswered above is the question of why comet storms should be periodic. One hypothesis is that Nemesis, the so-called Death Star, a dark companion of our sun, lurks ...
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... : Greenland Reports of recent large meteors and suspicious craters are plentiful in back issues of this newsletter. (SFs #93, #102, #103, #110, to name a few) Here is another. December 9, 1997, Greenland. At 5:11 A.M ., crews of three trawlers at widely separated sites off south Greenland reported "a blazing fireball that turned night into day." At a distance of 100 kilometers (62 miles), the flash was compared to that from an atmospheric nuclear explosion. Danish officials dismissed the possibility of a surreptitious nuclear test. The U.S . Air Force stated that the object was neither a reentering spacecraft nor artificial space debris. Some seismic tremors also emanated from Greenland, so the impact of a large meteorite is suspected. Based on the visual sightings and a moving object caught on a parkinglot surveillance camera in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, the probable impact point is at 61 25' N., 44 26' W. Efforts to locate the meteorite will have to wait for favorable weather. The supposed meteor was not a small object. The Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen compared it to the Kap York meteor that fell south of Thule, Greenland, in prehistoric times. Pieces of this iron meteorite aggregating 50 tons have been collected. (Sawyer, Kathy; "Fireball a Mystery till Thaw," Charlotte Observer, December 22, 1997. Cr. G. Fawcett via L. Farish.) Three additional large iron meteorites found on Disco Island, Greenland, in 1870. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Shergottites and nakhlites: young and mysterious The shergottites and nakhlites are two types of meteorites that have scientists scratching their heads. Both types have been dated by various radioactive clocks at 1,300 million years or less -- far younger than all other meteorites. Where could such young meteorites have originated? The asteroids and moon's surface are far too old. A current guess is the surface of Mars. There, an impacting meteor could have blasted pieces of young lava sheets in space and thence to earth. The shergottites have a shocked structure and could well have originated in such catastrophism, but the nakhlites show no signs of violence and seem to require a separate explanation. (Anonymous; "Mystery Meteorites May Come from Mars," New Scientist, 91:219, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... off the moon by impacts of large asteroids there. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Earth Gains a Retinue of Mini-Asteroids," Science, 258: 403, 1992. Also: Mitton, Simon; "HouseSized Asteroids Home In on the Earth," New Scientist, p. 16, October 31, 1992.) Comet Smith-Tuttle. At a conference in Sydney last October, astronomer D. Steele announced that comet SmithTuttle is heading towards a possible impact with earth on August 14, 2116. This 3.1 -mile-diameter chunk of ice would have the destructive power of 20 million megatons (1 .6 million Hiroshima bombs). (Anonymous; "Astronomer Predicts Comet Collision," Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1992.) Some recent meteorite impacts. Turning from the dire consequences discussed above, just what sort of astronomical debris actually does hit the earth on a day-to-day basis? Fist-sized meteorites strike our planet about every two hours. These are the ones we read about in the newspapers; and they have left a surprisingly large legacy of damage to human structures. C. Spratt and S. Stephens, in a survey published in Mercury in 1992, listed 61 verified meteorite strikes since 1790 in which buildings and other human works were damaged. (Of course most fell harmlessly in the sea and unpopulated areas.) Spratt and Stephens also provide a table of 26 nearmisses of humans plus one confirmed human impact. At least one horse and a dog have been killed by meteorites. These lists make ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why did life take a left turn?Life-as-we-know-it is left-handed; that is, our amino acid molecules are levorotatory rather than the mirror-image dextrorotatory versions. Because humans "expect" symmetry in nature, it is taken for granted that everything else in the universe is split equally between leftand right-handed molecules. Earth life is just a fluke -- or is it? On September 28, 1969, organic-rich stones fell in Victoria, Australia. This was the Murchison meteorite, and it may carry a message. Over a decade ago, M.H . Engel and B. Nagy reported that the organic molecules in the Murchison meteorite were not split 50:50 between left- and right-handed versions. So contrary to expectations was this finding that most scientists assumed that the analysis was contaminated by terrestrial organic molecules. Now, M.H . Engel and S.A . Macko have refined the analytical techniques and apparently avoided any taint of contamination. Their conclusion: the Murchison amino acids still lean to the left. From all this arise several intriguing possibilities: Life on earth started split evenly between left- and right-handed amino acids, but was nudged to the left by the influx of organic-laden meteorites like the Murchison. Terrestrial life actually originated elsewhere in the universe where much matter is left-handed, including life, if ...
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... -edged tools from it; the ancient Egyptians had carved a scarab from LDG and deposited it in Tutankhamen's tomb. But Clayton and the ancients did not recognize the scientific implications of their discovery. LDG is the purest natural silica glass ever found. Over a thousand tons of it are strewn across hundreds of kilometers of bleak desert. Some of the chunks weigh 26 kilograms, but most LDG exists in smaller, angular pieces looking like shards left when a giant green bottle was smashed by colossal forces. Pure as it is, LDG does contain tiny bubbles, white wisps, and inky black swirls. The whitish inclusions consist of refractory minerals, such as cristobalite. The ink-like swirls, though, are rich in iridium, which is diagnostic of an extraterrestrial impact -- meteorite or comet. The iridium leads to the heart of the LDG problem: Where did this immense amount of widely dispersed glass shards come from? Was it really created during the searing, sand-melting impact of a cosmic projectile? This is how today's catastrophists would have it? At least three "minor" problems bedevil the accepted impact theory. The surface of the Great Sand Sea shows no sign of a giant crater. Neither do microwave probes deep into the sand by satellite radar. LDG seems too pure to be derived from a messy cosmic collision. Known impact craters, such as that at Wabar in Saudi Arabia, are littered with bits of iron and other meteorite debris. Not so at the LDG sites. LDG is concentrated in two areas. One is oval ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Alh 84001: a message from mars or perhaps some other planet ALH 84001 is a meteorite picked up in the Allan Hills of Antarctica a decade ago. Its composition and fused crust suggest an extraterrestrial -- origin probably Mars. Space scientists think ALH 84001 was blasted off the Martian surface by an impacting body 14-18 million years ago, based upon its exposure to cosmic rays while circling the sun, edging ever closer to earth. The composition of ALH 84001 tells us curious facts about its place of origin. First, it contains carbonate minerals deposited by water. Second, the carbonate grains are banded, implying the parent rock formation was washed by water more than once. Third, and most interesting, chemists have found traces of molecules called PAHs, based on interconnected benzene rings. Three sources have been proposed for these PAHs: Terrestrial contamination Prebiotic activity on the planet of origin PAH-bearing comets and/or asteroids impacting the parent planet. Terrestrial contamination has always been a problem in analyzing meteorites, but great care has been taken in recent years, especially with the Antarctic lode of meteorites. In view of these precautions, it seems rather likely that somewhere "out there" life is brewing. (Anonymous; "A Chip Off the Old Mars," Sky and Telescope , 90:12, July 1995.) Reference: See also: Incredible Life for the interesting history of past "discoveries of life ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Life For Martian Life After the negative (some say "ambiguous") results from the Viking spacecraft life-detection experiments in 1976, astronomers and biologists have proclaimed that Mars is sterile. This pronouncement may have been premature. A meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1979 may change a few minds on this matter. This particular meteorite is one of the handful thought to have been blasted off into space by an oblique impact of an asteroid on the surface of Mars. Somehow, statistics were kind to these tiny Martian orphans, for they found their ways to the Antarctic snows. But what is really exciting is the recent discovery that chemical analysis of one of these purported Martian meteorites revealed a high concentration of organic material deep within. The implication is that Martian life existed, perhaps still does exist, beneath the Martian surface, where the Viking Lander's scoop could not get at it. (Anonymous; "Life under Mars?" Sky and Telescope, 78:461, 1989.) Comment. In other words, Mars like the earth, may harbor an unappreciated fauna in crevicular structure beneath the environmentally rigorous surface. See also: SF#67. From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... they were originally puddles of molten rock near the elusive crater or local ejecta analogous to volcanic bombs. (Ref. 1) Is the "age paradox" finally resolved? Some Australian geologists have stratigraphically dated the Australasian tektites as being just a few thousand rather than 770,000 years old. (SF#8 ) The 770,000-year figure is derived from the presence of Australasian microtekites at the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal and is, therefore, a "magnetostratigraphic" date. Recent excavations by now seem to confirm R. Fudali's assessment that all tektites and microtektites in the Australasian strewn field are definitely 770,000 years old. (Ref. 3) References Ref. 1. Taylor, S.R .; "Tektites: Some Unresvolved Problems," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 32:4 , 1997. Ref. 2. Schnetzler, C.C . and McHone, J.F .; "Source of Australasian Tektites: Investigating Possible Impact Sites in Laos," Meteoritics and Plane tary Science , 31:73, 1996. Ref. 3. Fudali, R.; "The Stratigraphic Age of Australites Revisited," Meteoritics, 28:114, 1993. Comment. Still puzzling is why so many Australasian tektites show up in recent sediments. One theory is that humans valued these glassy objects and did some anthropomorphic strewing. Dumbbell- and tear-shaped tektites picked up in Indochina. From Science Frontiers #115, JAN-FEB 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Martian Life: Act Ii The final issue of New Scientist for 1996 carried an article entitled "Death Knell for Martian Life." Was all that media hype for naught? What will NASA do now? Wait! Another putative Martian rock may save the day. Picked up in Antarctica in 1974, meteorite EETA 79001 weighs 7.9 kilograms and is superficially unimpressive. Inside, though, researchers I.P . Wright and C.T . Pillinger found a surprising quantity of organic compounds -- actually 1.5 parts per thousand by mass. This fraction is so large that terrestrial contamination seems remote. Furthermore, the organic component contains 4% more carbon-12 (relative to carbon-13) than the adjacent carbonate minerals. This is strong evidence that the organics had a biological origin. Similar tests on the media-hyped Martian meteorite ALH 84001 yielded the same carbon ratios. Pillinger remarked: "These results offer the strongest support yet for the hypothesis that life once existed on the planet." So far so good, but EETA 79001 conveys two additional facts -- both very tantalizing: (1 ) This meteorite was blasted off the Martian surface only about 500,000 years ago; and (2 ) It probably came from a different hemisphere than ALH 84001. From all this, a somewhat shaky conclusion: Life on Mars existed not only recently (and perhaps is still present) but was ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Cretaceous Incineration The worldwide deposit of iridium at the end of the Cretaceous implies, to many at least, that the great biological extinctions of this period were the consequence of a meteorite impact. It has now been discovered that clay samples from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary also contain 0.36-0 .58% graphitic carbon. It is fluffy stuff and suggests that the planet was once covered by a thick layer of soot. Quantitatively, the soot layer is equivalent to the carbon in 10% of the earth's present biomass. The authors speculate that this soot was created by huge wildfires that consumed much of the earth's vegetation and perhaps fossil fuel as well. Terrestrial life was, of course, devastated -- just as it is in the currently popular "nuclear winter" scenarios. The end-of-the-Cretaceous soot is in fact, thicker and more widely spread than nuclear winter theories predict. (Wolbach, Wendy S., et al; "Cretaceous Extinctions: Evidence for Wildfires and Search for Meteoric Material," Science, 230:167, 1985.) Comment. Questions arise, though: How could a single meteorite impact ignite worldwide wildfires? Why haven't other meteorite impacts, recorded abundantly by large craters and astroblemes, also set fire to the planet and left iridium layers? From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SAGA OF SOOT: PART III "For the first time, researchers have found complex organic molecules on the Earth that came from outside the Solar System. American scientists say tiny sooty grains extracted from meteorites contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from interstellar dust clouds." This article continues with an acknowledgement that F. Hoyle did predict way back in the 1950s that some of earth's organic matter came from outer space. And that he was roundly scoffed at. Next, more evidence is presented suggesting that the universe is full of the basic ingredients of life: Recently, the spectrum of the amino acid glycine was detected near the center of our galaxy. (Hecht, Jeff; "Stardust Brought Down to Earth," New Scientist, p. 17, March 23, 1996) Cross reference. IN SF#101, we related how PAHs were found in meteorite ALH84001, which was picked up in the Antarctic, and which is believed to have originated on Mars. From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Will earth's rings return?" In the past, the Earth had a ring system just like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, according to a Danish astronomer. He has gone so far as to say that our planet boasted rings on 16 separate occasions in the past 2800 years. "Kaare Rasmussen of the National Museum in Copenhagen carried out a survey of all reports of meteorite falls, fireballs and showers of shooting stars from 800 BC to 1750 AD. He then carried out a statistical analysis of the data. He discovered that there were many distinct periods of intense activity." Rasmussen found that the active periods, during which he believes a ring existed about the earth, began with a peak of high meteoritic activity as the ring formed, as a consequence of the earth's capture of a comet or asteroid. This was typically followed by a decrease of activity indicating ring stability. Finally, the ring broke up as its particles were decelerated by the earth's upper atmosphere, leading to another peak of activity. Thus, the plot of me-teorite activity is U-shaped, as in the figure, with the bottom of the U a bit higher than the normal background. (Gribbin, John; "Will the Earth's Rings Return?" New Scientist, p. 19, April 6, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #76, JUL-AUG 1991 . 1991- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is the earth seeding the rest of the solar system?We begin with the lead paragraph from a recent letter to Nature from H.J . Melosh; "Recent evidence that the SNC meteorites originated on Mars raises the question of whether large impacts on Earth may eject rocks that could fall on Mars (or other planets in the Solar System) and, if so whether they might contain spores or some sort of viable microorganisms that would have the opportunity to colonize Mars." After some computations Melosh concludes: "It seems likely that the impacts that produced craters on Earth that are greater than 100 km in diameter would each have ejected millions of tons of near-surface rocks carrying viable microorganisms into interplanetary space, much in the form of boulders large enough to shield those organisms from ultraviolet radiation, low-energy cosmic rays, and even galactic cosmic rays. Under such circumstances spores might remain viable for long periods of time." (Melosh, H.J .; "The Rocky Road to Panspermia," Nature, 332:687, 1988.) Comment. Next we need a reasonable mechanism that spreads life through interstellar space. Light pressure, that's it; and the idea is over a century old! Incidentally, SNC is short for Shergottites, Nakhalites, Chassignites; all rare classes of meteorites. From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Hint Of Extraterrestrial Oceans The Allende carbonaceous chondrite (a well-known meteorite) contains a layered mineral related to serpentine, which seems to have been formed under aqueous conditions before it was incorporated into the meteoric mass. In the sometimes obscure language of science, the authors say that the unusual characteristics of this mineral may ". .. reflect undetermined extraterrestrial conditions experienced by some chondrules and aggregates." (Tomeoka, Kazushige, and Buseck, Peter R.; "An Unusual Layered Mineral in Chondrules and Aggregates of the Allende Carbonaceous Chondrite," Nature, 299:327, 1982.) Comment. Usually "hydrous" and "sedimentary" meteorites are quickly forgotten! They don't conform to expectations. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Microscopic Life On Mars?The worm-like structures present in that (supposed) Martian meteorite ALH 84001 superficially resemble miniature bacteria. On this basis NASA loudly proclaimed that they might be the fossils of primitive Martian life forms. (SF#108, #110) Some scientists were suspicious of this claim. J.P . Bradley et al, in a recent letter to Nature, declared the putative fossils to be only the fractured surfaces of lifeless crystals. Responding, K. Thomas-Keprta insisted that her group was not so stupid that it would mistake crystals for fossils! Her group, too, had noticed the crystals. The claimed fossils are much larger and more numerous than the crystals. To settle the matter, Thomas-Keprta and associates plan to dissect the suspect structures. Stay tuned to this newsletter! (Bradley, J.P ., et al; "No Nanofossils in Martian Meteorite," Nature, 390:454, 1997. Also: Kerr, Richard A.; "Putative Martian Microbes Called Microscopy Artifacts," Science, 278:1706, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ballistic Panspermia Scientists are already convinced that cratering events on the moon and Mars have propelled rocky debris in the direction of the earth, and that some of these fragments have landed here in the guise of meteorites. A logical question is: Can life forms and/or chemical precursors of life be transported thus across the far reaches of the solar system? Can one planet infect another ballistically? An analysis by M.K . Wallis and N.C . Wickramasinghe is rather warm towards this idea: "The mass of escaping ejecta from the presumed 10-km comet that caused the 180-km Chicxulub crater, with a radius of roughly 10 km and 1 m deep, amounted to ~300 Mm3 , of which one third may have been rock and 10% higher-speed ejecta that could have transited directly to Mars. It may have taken 10 Ma to impact Mars but...the probability is not exceedingly low but 0.1 -1 %. "The survival and replication of microorganisms once they are released at destination would depend on the local conditions that prevail. Although viability on the present-day Martian surface is problematical, Earth-to-Mars transfers of life were feasible during an earlier 'wet' phase of the planet, prior to 3.5 Ga ago. The Martian atmosphere was also denser at that epoch, with several bars of CO2 , thus serving to decelerate meteorites, as ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Biogenic Magnetite in ALH84001 Many scientists were justifiably skeptical about those tiny, worm-like shapes seen in Martian meteorite ALH84001. Said to be fossilized bacteria, the objects seemed much too small to be viable. Some experts suggested they were just abiotic crystal-line growths. K.L . Thomas-Keprta, who led the NASA team studying ALH84001, snorted that her group was not so stupid that it would mistake crystals for fossils. ( SF#116 ) Thomas-Keprta et al have now come forward with more evidence that ALH-84001 does indeed contain biogenic material. Those worm-like forms have iron-rich rims containing fine-grained crystals of magnetite, some of which possess a unique morphology and which are essentially identical to the magnetite crystals secreted by magnetotactic bacteria on earth. Their conclusion: In ALH84001, the presence of these elongated prismatic magnetite crystals embedded within the carbonate glo- bules, which clearly formed on Mars, represents strong evidence for life on early Mars. (Thomas-Keprta, Kathie L., et al; "Biogenic Magnetite within Martian Meteorite ALH84001," Eos, 80:F69, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #130, JUL-AUG 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous High Altitude Luminosity (AHAL)When meteors plunge into the earth's upper atmosphere, friction with the air causes them to incandesce and burn up. The smaller ones are completely consumed. A few bigger ones reach earth and are renamed "meteorites." So far, all of this is well-understood. But when meteors begin to burn up much above 100 kilometers, a problem arises. The air there is normally much too thin to cause incandescence and burn-up. Observational anomalies are abundant. Two Leonid fireballs were seen glowing at 160 kilometers by Japanese scientists. In 1998, a Dutch team in China detected bright Leonids at 200 kilometers! In addition, some Russian reentering space-craft began glowing well above 100 kilometers. ANAL is a solid phenomenon. Of course, the density of the upper atmosphere does increase somewhat when solar activity is high. Atmospheric gravity waves can also cause the atmosphere to bulge out. But these effects are inadequate to explain all observations. R. Spalding, at Sandia National Laboratories, ventures that ions in the upper atmosphere are electrostatically attracted to meteors and create light when they collide with them. A. Ol'khovatov suggests that "plasma instabilities" may be involved. To learn more about these, go to the latter's web site at: www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/3240/ (Ol'khovatov, Andrei; "Anomalous High ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Asteroid impact or volcanos?The debate over the real cause of the terrestrial catastrophism that occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, some 65 million years ago, grinds on. Some physical scientists claim rather imperiously that the dinosaurs and many other species were done in by the impact of a huge asteroid/meteorite. The worldwide iridium spike is conclusive, they say. Many paleontologists and geologists, however, remain unconvinced and prefer widespread volcanism. We have already covered the various arguments in past issues of Science Frontiers; here, we want to advise our readers that a pair of excellent articles by principals in this debate have appeared in Scientific American. Generally speaking, it seems that the proponents of the impact theory are now listening to the other side. For example, multiple impacts are now proposed to account for evidence of the type introduced below. (Alvarez, Walter, and Asaro, Frank; "An Extraterrestrial Impact," Scientific American, 263:78, October 1990. Also: Courtillot, Vincent E.; "A Volcanic Eruption," Scientific American, 263:85, October 1990.) A spike dulled. The case for a single asteroid/meteorite impact has been weakened by a recent reexamination of the classic exposure of the CretaceousTertiary boundary at Gubbio, Italy. Here, the discovery of an iridium "spike" at the boundary was thought to betoken a sudden, catastrophic, extraterrestrial event. On further ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Libyan desert glass may not be the product of impacts.The mysterious Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) is almost pure silica. It occurs in pieces weighing up to 16 pounds in the Sand Sea of the Libyan desert, in an area roughly 130 by 53 kilometers. Most scientists have attributed it to meteorite impact. The results of a thermal, microstructural, and chemical analysis of LDG suggest that it is more likely derived from a low-temperature chemical process rather than meteorite impact on sand. (McPherson, D., et al; "Was Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) Formed by a Low Temperature Chemical Process?" Eos, 66:296, 1985.) Comment. This short abstract in Eos is frustrating. What sort of natural chemical process could leave pieces of glass strewn over such a huge area? And what about the Darwin Glass in Australia? Reference. Various natural glasses are discussed in ESM2 in the Catalog: Neglected Geological Anomalies. For more information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... died out as the planet cooled and much of its atmosphere was dissipated. 'It is highly unlikely life could exist on Mars today,' [C .] McKay said. .. .. . "However some scientists have not dismissed the possibility that primitive life may still exist on Mars. 'The chances are remote but life may be located in slushy brines well below the surface, or even inside Martian rocks,' said Howard Klein, who headed the biological experiments on board Viking. Living microorganisms have been found just below the surface of rocks in Antarctica, Klein said." (Anonymous; Antarctica Hints at Why There May Be Fossils on Mars," New Scientist, p. 20, September 4, 1986.) Comment. It is curious that some of the meteorites picked up in Antarctica are thought to have originated on Mars and been blasted off by meteoric impacts. This observation leads to the speculation that terrestrial life might have been seeded from Mars -- meteoric panspermia! Are we all Martians? If you have hung on this far, you'll want to read about "Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon" just below. Also refer to our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris for material on the putative Martian meteorites. From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... number of anomalous landforms on Mars can be attributed to glaciation, including the action of ice and meltwater. Glacial landscapes are concentrated south of lat -33 and in the Northern Plains suggesting vast Austral and Boreal ice sheets. Crater densities on the glaciated terrains indicate that the final glacial epoch occurred late in Martian history. Thus, Mars may have had a relatively warm, moist climate and dense atmosphere much later than previously believed." (Kargel, Jeffrey S., and Strom, Robert G.; "Ancient Glaciation on Mars," Geology, 20:3 , 1992.) If Mars was warm and wet not too long ago, as implied above, perhaps life did gain a foothold there through either independent invention or, perhaps, through seeding by template-carrying comets or meteorites. P.J . Boston et al have investigated one possible Martian ecosystem: "We have reexamined the question of extant microbial life on Mars in light of the most recent information about the planet and recently discovered nonphotosynthetic ecosystems on Earth -- deep sea hydrothermal vent communities and deep subsurface aquifer communities. On Mars, protected subsurface niches associated with hydrothermal activity could have continued to support life even after surface conditions became inhospitable. Geochemical evidence from the SNC meteorites and geomorphological evidence for recent volcanism suggest that such habitats could persist to the present time...We suggest a possible deep subsurface microbial ecology similar to those discovered to depths of several kilometers below the surface of the Earth." (Boston, Penelope J., et al; "On the Possibility of Chemosynthetic Ecosystems in Subsurface ...
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... oval-shaped depressions in the ground called 'Carolina Bays.' "From the air these shallow, marshy bogs created a landscape that resembles the pockmarked surface of the moon. They crisscross each other in a chaotic tapestry, but at ground level are hardly noticeable because of thick forests and semitropical swamplands. "Highways and modern housing developments have all but obliterated thousands of the bays, leaving them visible only to trained eyes. "Still, it is estimated that no fewer than 300,000 such bays, ranging from a few feet across to almost two miles in diameter, dot the East Coast landscape from southern New Jersey to northeastern Florida. One source places the number at more than half a million." Map showing areas of abundant Carolina Bays and frequent meterorite finds. However, meteorites are rare in the areas of the bays. Floyd continues with a brief history of the Carolina Bay region and then reviews some of the theories of origin that have been proposed. Two now-discarded mechanisms of formation invoked: (1 ) immense schools of spawning fish; and (2 ) icebergs stranded as the Ice Ages waned. In presenting today's favorite theory, Floyd quotes from H. Savage's book The Mysterious Carolina Bays : "' These half-million shallow craters represent the visible scars of but a small fraction of the meteors that fell to earth...when a comet smashed into the atmosphere and exploded over the American Southeast,' Savage wrote. 'Countless thousands of its meteorites must have plunged into the sea beyond, leaving no trace; ...
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... On an early summer evening, P.W . Becker, a census taker, was sitting in his car consulting a map. The car was parked on a dead-end street. No people or other cars were in sight. "Suddenly there was a horrific bang and the car rocked. A missile from the sky lay in plain view, square in the center of my car's hood. .. .. . "I cautiously got out to examine the fallen object. Tiny pieces had broken off, but it was largely intact and measured four to five inches across. I smelled it -- yes, it still carried a faint scent -- of pizza! It was a slice of pizza, solid as a rock and stone cold. This was no ordinary meteorite. I thought of God feeding the Israelites manna from heaven, but God knows I prefer pepperoni. This was plain, tomato and cheese, on a thin crust." (Becker, Peter W.; "Manna or Meteorite?" Sky and Telescope, 86:7 , August 1993.) Comment. After you stop laughing, recall that many accounts of fish falling from the sky mention that they are frozen. Hummm. Perhaps a whirlwind whipped through a pizzeria! Reference. Over the centuries, many strange objects have been reported to fall from the sky. See GWF in our catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. Description here . From Science Frontiers #90, NOV-DEC 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... not their rugged constitutions that place these miniscule forms of life in a new category; it is their genomes. They are radically different from those found in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The genome of one species of Archea collected from a hot vent 3 kilometers deep in the Pacific has been sequenced. Biologists were taken aback. Methanococcus jannaschii , as it has been dubbed, possesses 1738 genes, of which 56% are entirely new to science. Many of these genes do not look anything like those found in the prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In a word, they seem "alien." (Morell, Virginia; "Life's Last Domain," Science, 273:1043, 1996.) How alien? Well, they are so tough that they could have arrived from Mars on a meteorite. Millions of years of residence in a meteorite edging its way toward a rendezvous with earth mean nothing to the Archea. They have even been cultured from the interior of a salt crystal 200 million years old. (Fanale, Fraser; "Martian Substances," Science, 275:321, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #112, JUL-AUG 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . From visual sightings, it is concluded that the object wasn't a meteoric fireball (bolide). A surface "crater" in Cando (close to Santiago) with dimensions 29 x 13 m and 1.5 m deep was later discovered within 1 km of the projected "impact" point of the luminous object. At this site, in addition to the topsoil, full-grown pine trees greater than 20 m high were thrown downhill over a nearby road, leaving the downslope edge of the "crater" untouched and with a steep interior wall (this would not be the case if a regular landslide were responsible for the transport). Standing trees below the "crater" showed embedded soil and plant residues up to heights greater than 3 m. No strange materials (meteorites or artifacts) were recovered in or close to the "crater"; all materials belonged to the site and were not shocked; thus an impact is very improbable. "A possible explanation capable of reconciling all of the observations is presented. It hypothesizes an eruption of earth gases to create the crater, with the rising gas plume then interacting with atmospheric electricity to produce the propagating fireball that was observed." (Docobo, J.A ., et al; "Investigation of a Bright Flying Object over Northwest Spain, 1994 January 18," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 33:57, 1998.) Comments. We cannot resist associating these strange "craters" with the even stranger "cookie-cutter" holes or shallow "craters" reported in SF#37 and ...
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... Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Grooves Of Phobos Still Unexplained The Martian satellite Phobos is etched by curious grooves. Initially, the grooves were thought to be fracture lines formed by the impact that blasted out Stickney, the huge crater seen on Phobos. However, studies of the grooves revealed at least three families of grooves of different ages, with members of each family located on parallel planes cutting right through the body of the satellite. Two recent papers have proposed radically different explanations. A. Horvath and E. Illes wonder whether Phobos might not be a layered structure, having once been part of a larger stratified body. J.B . Murray thinks the families of grooves might have been scraped out by disciplined formations of meteorites that were launched into space by Martian volcanos. (Horvath, A., and Illes, E.; "On the Possibility of the Layered Structure of Phobos," Eos, 62:203, 1981. Also: Murray, J.B .; "Grooved Terrains on Planetary Satellites," Eos, 62:202, 1981.) Comment. It is not easy to conceive of such well-drilled formations of meteorites. Neither is it easy to imagine a large, stratified body that might have given rise to Phobos. From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... nucleus, has long been considered a "dirty snowball"; that is, a mixture of dirt and ices. Now it appears that comets are more like "icy dirtballs"! And some of that dirt is pitch black. New measurments of the bare nuclei of comets, using a visual-infrared technique, find that the nuclei reflect as little as 2% of the incident sunlight. They are indeed charcoal black. Comet nuclei, according to W. Hartmann and his colleagues, are colored by a brownishblack primordial organic sludge, and have the appearance of "a very dark Hershey bar." The use of the adjective "organic" may be premature, but in light of the next item, maybe not. (2 ) Carbonaceous chondrites . This well-known class of meteorites sometimes appears tarry and is characterized by carbon contents of up to 2% and more. The Japanese have just reported the analysis of Yamoto 791198, a carbonaceous chondrite picked up in the Antarctic. This meteorite is loaded with amino acids, 20 kinds of them. These extraterrestrial amino acids are not considered biogenic because they are half left-handed and half right-handed; whereas all amino acids synthesized by terrestrial animals, plants, etc. are left-handed. [This is obviously presumptious because we have no notion how extraterrestrial life works, assuming it exists at all.] (3 ) The rings of Uranus . Voyager photos reveal that these rings are composed of unknown dark material quite unlike that in the high-albedo (bright) rings of Saturn. References. ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Lost City of Nan Madol Bubonic Plague As An Indicator of Diffusion? The Rabbit in the Moon: More Evidence of Diffusion? Astronomy The Martian Great Lakes Antarctic Meteorites Are Different Disparity Between Asteroids and Meteorites Biology The Gulper Eel and its Knotty Problem Bats May Have Invented Flight Twice (At Least!) Scant Ant Chromosomes Champ in 1985 Platypus Bill An Electrical Probe Polar Bear Coats Are Thermal Diodes Geology When Antarctica Was Green Wrong-way Primate Migration Eastern Quakes May Be Lubricated by Heavy Rainfalls The Exploding Lake Backtracking Along the Paluxy: Or is There A Deeper Mystery? Geophysics Electromagnetic Radiation From Stressed Rocks Some English Meteorological Anomalies Ozone Hole Over Antarctica Psychology Be Happy, Be Healthy: the Case for Psychoimmunology ...
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... and molecular sieves in which RNA molecules could be assembled and contained. If the RNA could then replicate with the aid of ribozymes and without proteins, the chance of creating life becomes not impossible but merely wildly unlikely." The article concludes with a statement that self-replicating molecules synthesized in hydrothermal systems would be pre-adapted to "life" in the open ocean if they "learned" to surround themselves with bags of lipids. (Bag of lipids = a membrane.) (Nisbet, E.G .; "RNA and Hot-Water Springs," Nature, 322:206, 1986.) It just so happens that D.W . Deamer, University of California, Davis, has now found that the 4.5 -billion-year-old Murchison meteorite from Australia contains lipid-like organic chemicals that can self-assemble into membrane-like films. His paper was presented before the International Society for the Study of Origins of Life. (Raloff, J.; "Clues to Life's Cellular Origins," Science News, 130:71, 1986.) Comment. Strange that the earth should be "tailor-made" for biochemical operations and that outer space teems with meteorites transporting other ingredients of life-synthesis. That the earth's crust and deep soil are conducive to life is apparent in recent work done sponsored by DuPont and the Department of Energy. This effort has found that life is abundant at least 850 feet below the surface -- a realm hardly suspected to harbor life. "' There is ...
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... and early Mars having similar atmospheric compositions and not too dissimilar atmospheric structures, it is reasonable to suppose that the warm Martian oceans, like the ancient oceans of Earth, would develop anerobic and aerobic photosynthesizing prokaryotes and structures like stromatolites. Their development might have changed the Martian atmosphere. Their fossils might be found along the fringes of the old oceans, the northern lowland plains." (Helfer, H.L .; "Of Martian Atmospheres, Oceans, and Fossils," Icarus, 87:228, 1990.) Comment. The Gaia influence is seen in the molding of the Martian atmosphere into something more conducive to the development of life. One can also speculate that, if life did develop on Mars, it could have seeded the earth via bits of debris blasted off by meteorite impacts. Several meteorites picked up in Antarctica are thought to have come from Mars originally. Reference. Data suggesting Martian life are cataloged in AME14 in The Moon and the Planets. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #74, MAR-APR 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . The LDG fragments exhibit a factor of three variation in the REE abundances (La, 5.4 -15.3 ppm). They all show parallel and steep LREE enriched patterns ([ La/Sm]N , 3.8 -4 .2 ) and flat HREE ([ Tb/Lu]N , 1.1 - 1.2 ) and distinct negative europium anomalies (Eu/Eu*, about 0.5 ). The gases in the vesicles of LDG (N2 , Ar, O2 , CO2 , H2 O and their dissociation products) are present in proportions consistent with derivation from the terrestrial atmosphere. Dark streaks present in some samples of LDG contain significantly higher siderophile element abundances (Ir, about 0.5 ppb), possibly representing a meteoritic residue. "Our studies suggest that LDG is the product of meteorite impact into quartz-rich surficial eolion and alluvial sand, and perhaps also into quartz-rich sandstone, of the western Desert of Egypt." (Murall, A.V ., et al; Eos, 70: 379, 1989.) Reference. Libyan desert glass and other unusual natural glasses are cataloged in ESM2 in Neglected Geological Anomalies. To order this catalog, visit here . From Science Frontiers #64, JUL-AUG 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... western Asia, straddling 30 June 1908, are remimiscent of the 1883 Krakatoa outburst, they ask for transient scatterers in the upper atmosphere, above 500 km, at heights which only methane and hydrogen are light enough to reach in sufficient quantity. Fast-rising natural gas has been repeatedly detected in recent years, in the form of "mystery clouds"---by airplane pilots---and indirectly as pockmarks on 6% of the sea floor. In other words, Tunguska might well have been---not an extraterrestrial impact---but a simultaneous outburst and detonation of natural gas from five closely spaced vents. The report continues with pro-andcon discussions, concluding that this outrageous hypothesis cannot be dismissed! (Kundt, Wolfgang; "Tunguska 2001," Meteorite, 7:25, November 2001.) Mirror matter is another new candidate as Tunguska's cause. This and other radical hypotheses, like the methane blowouts mentioned above, cannot be rejected perfunctorily because, even after 75 years and 35 expeditions to the mosquito-dominated Tunguska site, scientists have not uncovered any convincing evidence that a comet, meteorite, or asteroid was the culprit. R. Foot, University of Melbourne, has pointed out that, although mirror matter is widely believed to interact with normal matter only through gravitation, recent experiments suggest that mirror-matter electrons and protons may carry miniscule electric charges---just enough to cause a mirror-matter projectile to explode at a high altitude thereby creating the havoc observed in the normal matter exposed below at the Tunguska ...
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