Peru Meteorite Demonstrates New Findings for Mars-Part I
“Normally with a small object like this, the atmosphere slows it down, and it becomes the equivalent of a bowling ball dropping into the ground,” Schultz said. “It would make a hole in the ground, like a pit, but not a crater. But this meteorite kept on going at a speed about 40 to 50 times faster than it should have been going.”
Last September 15, 2007, the country of Peru made news when an object crashed into a site near the Carancas village, leaving a gaping hole that quickly formed many scientific theories. But it left a 49-foot-wide crater when it landed, later to be discovered as a meteorite hitting the earth with such an impact that soil landed four football fields away. Traveling through space at 15,000 miles per hour, it never reduced speed when it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
When the meteorite first landed near Lake Titicaca, astronomers considered it as a legitimate meteorite, constantly bombarding the Earth from outer space. But usually burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere and never reaching the surface of Earth. The statistics show that only one in a thousand rocks is actually a real meteorite that impacts our planet, according to Jay Melosh, an expert on impact craters and professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.
With so many theories rapidly spreading through the scientific world, Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and considered an expert in extraterrestrial impacts, Providence, RI, went directly to Peru and the site of the meteorite for further findings. His findings were presented at the 39th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in League City, Texas, on March 11, 2008, a conference of international specialists—petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, geology, and astronomy.
Collaborating on the research time with Scott Schultz were Brown University graduate student Robert “Scott” Harris; a Peruvian astrophysicist, Jose Ishitsuka; and an astronomer from Uraguay, GonzaloTancredi. As they thought, the 49-foot-wide creator impact was caused by a meteorite but when they analyzed the soil where the meteorite hit, “planar deformation features” were found, described in layman’s terminology as fractured lines in sand grains found in the ground.
In addition to these findings, the scattered sands grains had a story to tell of their own—and this was the meteorite was traveling at a very high rate of speed through the atmosphere—approximately 15,000 miles per hour when it hit Earth.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 3:24 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
