Martian Meteorite | NWA 10697 — Complete Slice Of A Rock From The Planet Mars

This is a complete slice of a Martian meteorite; it was cut from a rock on Mars that was launched off the Martian surface following an asteroid impact into an Earth-crossing orbit. In addition to highly specific chemical markers, most Martian meteorites — such as this example — exhibit an unusually young crystalline age which means they cannot be from asteroids. The smoking gun of Martian origin was announced in 1995 when minute amounts of gas found in tiny glassy inclusions of two suspected Martian meteorites similar to this offering were analyzed, and the gas matched the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking missions.

As rare as the Moon is on Earth (every single bit would fit in the back of an SUV), Mars is far more rare still. There are only 253 kilograms of Mars on Earth and as NWA 10697 weighs only 151 grams, very few specimens will ever be available. The cut surface contains beige prismatic pyroxene grains in a khaki-colored matrix. Scattered throughout are maskelynite grains — the impact glass known to contain minute volumes of Martian atmosphere. The poikilitic mineral texture (large crystals containing smaller crystals in an igneous rock — in this instance, large pyroxene grains encompassing olivine crystals) is both fresh and highly shocked. The combination of attributes now seen result in an enthralling, singular sample of the planet Mars.

The team of scientists performing the analysis was led by Dr. Anthony Irving, among the world’s foremost experts in the classification of meteorites which originate from the Moon and Mars.

The abstract in which this meteorite is described appears in the 105^th Edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin. A copy of this publication accompanies this lot. 

PROVENANCE:

The main mass from which this slice was cut is on display at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum