Meteorites from Our Moon and Mars

How is this possible?  The simple answer is "science".  Both our Moon and planet Mars lack an atmosphere. When asteroids strike these celestial objects (which happens quite frequently - think of the Moon with all of those craters!), fragments eject from the impact and occasionally make their way into Earth’s orbit. If the stone survives its cataclysmic entry into Earth, it lands on the ground and becomes known as a meteorite.

Once discovered (usually by teams of Meteorite hunters), the stone is offered to us and we remove a 20 gram sample and provide it to one of the top scientists in the field of Meteoritics to be studied under the microscope.  Its origin is then determined and plotted based on the comparison of its compositional property to the different classes of asteroids, lunar samples returned to Earth by NASA astronauts and the data provided by NASA's Viking spacecraft and the rovers that have been sampling Mars since the late 70's. From there, meteorites make their way into museums, universities and to the general public all around the world. 

 

Curious what it might be like to live on Planet Mars?  Click here to read a glimpse!