Hundreds of Meteorites Uncovered in Antarctica
by Leonard David, SPACE.com
23 January 2012
This week we had to find an article that involved astronomy. I found one about meteorites in Antarctica. It was about an expedition that several scientists went on last month to collect meteorites that had fallen from space for their studies. They were very successful. They collected 300 samples from Miller Ridge which is the area they were researching in East Antarctica. According to the article, the weather wasn’t that great during the month they were there. If it had been better they would have been able to collect more meteorite samples. These scientists belong to a group called ANSMET which stands for the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program. ANSMET started in 1976 and overall they have collected 20,000 meteorite samples from Antarctica or as I like to call them space rocks.Living in Antarctica can’t be very easy considering how cold it is there. Imagine living there in a tent for a month. Many days the weather was so bad that the team of scientists could go out to hunt meteorite samples. They had a lot of down time to sleep, write, and eat. Meteorites land everywhere on Earth because of the sheet of ice that covers the Antarctic it is easy to spot the meteorites and they have been left alone since landing so they are very good samples for scientists researching other planets. In conclusion, I think these scientists were very brave to go out on this expedition to collect space rocks.
Cool. I agree with you, I also think that it would be difficult to live, and work in the Antarctic. I wonder what a meteorite looks like up close. Good job
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely be difficult to live there! However, it would be a very interesting job. Isn't it crazy that they have collected so many meteorites in Antarctica? I wonder if it is because of the magnetosphere is the weakest at the poles.
ReplyDelete