Peru Meteorite Demonstrates New Findings for Mars-Part II
“This just isn’t what we expected,” Schultz said, director of the Northeast Planetary Data Center and the NASA/Rhode Island University Space Grant Consortium. “It was to the point that many thought this was fake. It was completely inconsistent with our understanding how stony meteorites act.”
The words “stony meteorite” mean nothing to most people, but the meteorite that hit Peru was considered as one—totally intact before impacting Earth due to surviving its high-speed downward path from wherever to Earth. Typically, the once considered “Carancas fireball” is not known to be a fragile stony meteorite that would shatter to bits after it entering Earth’s atmosphere, with very little left of its remains once it hit.
But for some reason, the one that hit Peru did nothing of this, remaining completely solid as it hit. “This just isn’t what we expected,” Schultz said. “It was to the point that many thought this was fake. It was completely inconsistent with our understanding how stony meteorites act.” According to Schultz, fragments from any meteorites will blow in all directions as it heads toward Earth—except for the Carancas meteorite, which did not follow scientific theories. The reason, according to Schultz, is the high speed of the meteorite. It was going so fact that the particles that usually leave, could not do so, as it was impossible to escape the “shock-wave” barrier because of the meteorite. Because of this, it was “reconstituted into another shape,” said Schultz. As it streamlined in gathering speed, it penetrated Earth’s atmosphere more efficiently, encountering less friction as it sped toward Earth.
This new theory of Schultz’s may possibly change current theories regarding all small, stony meteorites and their disintegration before hitting Earth. It could also changing present scientific thinking about any extraterrestrial objects heading toward Earth, regardless of its size and shape. You just wonder how many other lakes and ponds were created by a stony meteorite, but we just don’t know about them because when these things hit the surface they just completely pulverize and then they weather,” said Schultz.
The numbers of craters that have been recently found on Mars could benefit from Schultz’s recent theory, as they could have come from anywhere as in Peru. “They could have come from anything,” he said. “It would be interesting to study these small craters and see what produced them. Perhaps they also will defy our understanding.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 12:12 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.
