Hunting Hidden Treasures: Antarctic Meteorites Arrive at JSC
2015-04-01
Meteorite samples collected in Antarctica over the past two seasons arrived at Johnson Space Center on March 24. The samples will be examined, classified and curated in the Antarctic Meteorite Processing Lab here. Those of greatest scientific interest will be sent to scientists around the world to study.
All of the samples were found in the blue ice fields along the Transantarctic Mountains. The 2014-2015 season collected samples in the Dominion Range and, more specifically, the Davis-Ward Nunataks, whereas the samples from the 2013-2014 season were collected from the Miller Range. The latter were held back for one year at McMurdo Station - Antarctica’s largest community and a functional, modern-day science station - because of a complication in loading the cargo ship in the spring of 2014.
In all, nearly 900 specimens were delivered, including 562 from the Dominion Range and 332 from the Miller Range. The total weight of the cargo delivered was close to 300 pounds including packaging. The weight of the meteorite samples will not be known until JSC curation staff begins to characterize the samples in a few weeks.
Curation staff will assign official names and numbers to the samples in the coming weeks and then start to classify those of greatest interest so that they can be announced in the next Antarctic meteorite newsletter in the August/September timeframe. The origin of the meteorites, whether they be from Mars, the moon, asteroids, comets or other bodies, is not known until they have been examined in detail by curators at Johnson and the Smithsonian Institution. These samples are then made available, free of charge, to scientists from around the world.
The 2014-2015 expedition marked the 38th season that researchers have gone to Antarctica to hunt for meteorites. Ralph Harvey of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio served as the principal investigator. Jim Karner, also from Case Western Reserve University, was the co-principal investigator. Other members of the team were John Schutt, Case Western Reserve University; Brian Rougeux, assistant mountaineer; Ryan Zeigler and Shannon Walker, JSC; Christine Floss, Washington University in St. Louis; Devon Burr, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; and Vinciane Debaille, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
The meteorite collection at Johnson continues to grow in number and diversity, according to Dr. Kevin Righter, NASA curator of the U.S. Antarctic meteorite collection.
“The U.S. Antarctic meteorite collection is the largest in the world with more than 21,000 samples and is dedicated to research in planetary science,” Righter said. “While the collection includes many samples from the moon and Mars, it also includes many rare and unusual meteorite types that represent a diversity of materials originating from the asteroid belt and now present in the population of near-Earth objects.”
Johnson maintains what is referred to as the “active collection,” which means it is actively being studied by researchers. About 1,000 such samples are distributed annually, 85 percent of them to researchers in the United States and 15 percent to international researchers.
These rocks are critical to our understanding of the history of the solar system, providing essential "ground-truth" for our study of the asteroids, planets and other bodies of our solar system.
“Because of the large number of samples recovered, the Antarctic collection has actually enabled new groups of meteorites to be discovered and defined, thus contributing in a fundamental way to our understanding of the bodies in the inner solar system,” Righter said. “Because they are available to the science community, they can be studied in high-sensitivity, Earth-based labs to measure physical and chemical properties, their age of origin and exposure to space, and their detailed impact and geologic history.”
The curation and collection of Antarctic meteorites is a U.S.-funded, cooperative effort among NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. The NSF, with decades of experience in exploring this harsh environment, provides support for field research and collection. NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, as experts in curation of lunar samples and geologic specimens, respectively, provide for the classification, storage and distribution of Antarctic meteorites.
For more on NASA’s Antarctic meteorite collection, visit:
http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/index.cfm
All of the samples were found in the blue ice fields along the Transantarctic Mountains. The 2014-2015 season collected samples in the Dominion Range and, more specifically, the Davis-Ward Nunataks, whereas the samples from the 2013-2014 season were collected from the Miller Range. The latter were held back for one year at McMurdo Station - Antarctica’s largest community and a functional, modern-day science station - because of a complication in loading the cargo ship in the spring of 2014.
In all, nearly 900 specimens were delivered, including 562 from the Dominion Range and 332 from the Miller Range. The total weight of the cargo delivered was close to 300 pounds including packaging. The weight of the meteorite samples will not be known until JSC curation staff begins to characterize the samples in a few weeks.
Curation staff will assign official names and numbers to the samples in the coming weeks and then start to classify those of greatest interest so that they can be announced in the next Antarctic meteorite newsletter in the August/September timeframe. The origin of the meteorites, whether they be from Mars, the moon, asteroids, comets or other bodies, is not known until they have been examined in detail by curators at Johnson and the Smithsonian Institution. These samples are then made available, free of charge, to scientists from around the world.
The 2014-2015 expedition marked the 38th season that researchers have gone to Antarctica to hunt for meteorites. Ralph Harvey of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio served as the principal investigator. Jim Karner, also from Case Western Reserve University, was the co-principal investigator. Other members of the team were John Schutt, Case Western Reserve University; Brian Rougeux, assistant mountaineer; Ryan Zeigler and Shannon Walker, JSC; Christine Floss, Washington University in St. Louis; Devon Burr, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; and Vinciane Debaille, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
The meteorite collection at Johnson continues to grow in number and diversity, according to Dr. Kevin Righter, NASA curator of the U.S. Antarctic meteorite collection.
“The U.S. Antarctic meteorite collection is the largest in the world with more than 21,000 samples and is dedicated to research in planetary science,” Righter said. “While the collection includes many samples from the moon and Mars, it also includes many rare and unusual meteorite types that represent a diversity of materials originating from the asteroid belt and now present in the population of near-Earth objects.”
Johnson maintains what is referred to as the “active collection,” which means it is actively being studied by researchers. About 1,000 such samples are distributed annually, 85 percent of them to researchers in the United States and 15 percent to international researchers.
These rocks are critical to our understanding of the history of the solar system, providing essential "ground-truth" for our study of the asteroids, planets and other bodies of our solar system.
“Because of the large number of samples recovered, the Antarctic collection has actually enabled new groups of meteorites to be discovered and defined, thus contributing in a fundamental way to our understanding of the bodies in the inner solar system,” Righter said. “Because they are available to the science community, they can be studied in high-sensitivity, Earth-based labs to measure physical and chemical properties, their age of origin and exposure to space, and their detailed impact and geologic history.”
The curation and collection of Antarctic meteorites is a U.S.-funded, cooperative effort among NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. The NSF, with decades of experience in exploring this harsh environment, provides support for field research and collection. NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, as experts in curation of lunar samples and geologic specimens, respectively, provide for the classification, storage and distribution of Antarctic meteorites.
For more on NASA’s Antarctic meteorite collection, visit:
http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/index.cfm
The 2014-15 ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) field party collecting a meteorite in the Dominion Range, Antarctica. Sample find locations are collected using sterile tools and Teflon bags, and precisely recorded by differential GPS.
Field image of a large meteorite found during the 2014-15 ANSMET season. The field numbers in the image are used for tracking and inventory purposes.
At the end of every day, the meteorites are sorted, inventoried, and stored away for shipment back to JSC. This sorting must happen outside, as the meteorites must be kept below -20oC at all time.
Meteorite curation scientists working in nitrogen cabinets and gloveboxes in which the meteorites are stored and handled. Samples are stored and handled in nitrogen to prevent contamination and oxidation and keep the samples as pristine as possible for scientific research.
The interior of a meteorite (LAR 06298 – an LL chondritic impact melt breccia) that is similar to the Chelyabinsk meteorite that fell in Russia in 2013. This meteorite was cut using a bandsaw in the Meteorite Processing Lab which exposed the macroscopic texture of the breccia – light colored impact melted matrix with rounded darker portions that are relatively unaffected by the melting. Samples like this will ultimately provide detailed information on the impact and collisional history of near Earth objects and potential Earth impactors.