Hunt for Antarctic meteorites renewed by NASA, NSF and Smithsonian Institution

The research for Antarctic meteorites has been renewed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This will help NASA learn more about the primitive building blocks of the solar system. The NASA researchers will also be able to answer the questions about Moon and Mars after renewing the search for Antarctic meteorites.

An agreement to search for, collect and curate Antarctic meteorites has recently been renewed by NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Smithsonian Institution (SI). The partnership is called the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Programme (ANSMET).

After inking the new joint agreement, the programme for an additional decade will reach an advance stage and will replace an earlier agreement that was signed in 1980.

"Antarctic meteorites are posing new questions about the formation and early history of our solar system. Some of these questions are spurring new exploration of the solar system by NASA missions," Tim McCoy, Smithsonian meteorite scientist said.

In 1976, the United States started searching for meteorites in Antarctica. Since then the ANSMET programme has gathered more than 23,000 specimens, dramatically increasing the number of samples available for study from the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

These include the first meteorites discovered from the Moon and Mars and the ALH 84001 Martian meteorite. This well-known meteorite helped renew interest in Mars exploration in the 1990s.

Natural objects that fall to Earth from space and survive intact so they can be collected on the ground or on ice are called Meteorites.

According to NASA, a unique environment for the collection of meteorites is provided by Antarctica because the cold desert climate preserves meteorites for long periods of time.

Meteorites can be concentrated in certain locations due to the movements of the ice sheets. Scientists therefore find it easy to locate them.

Small field parties are deployed by ANSMET during the Antarctic summer (winter in the northern hemisphere) to hunt for the meteorites.
The conditions are harsh even in summer. The temperatures fall below minus 18 degrees Celsius.

The ANSMET teams live in tents on the ice in remote areas, where they search for meteorites using snowmobiles or on foot.

Meteorites come from a variety of places in the solar system. Most meteorites originated on asteroids, which are remnants of the materials from which planets were formed.

A few meteorites originated on the Moon and Mars and blasted off the surfaces by large asteroid impacts and later fell on Earth.
The lunar meteorites may come from parts of the Moon not visited by astronauts in the 20th century, and they extend our knowledge of

Earth's companion and how it formed.
Martian meteorites are humankind's only specimens of rocks known to be from another planet.

(With inputs from PTI)