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Rare Mars meteorite discovered in Middle East

meteorite
The Oman rock is chemically similar to this Mars meteorite from Antarctica, which some scientists think contains fossils of microbial life.  

May 25, 2000
Web posted at: 4:53 PM EDT (2053 GMT)

(CNN) -- A meteorite hunter combing the deserts of Oman found a stone thought to have originated on Mars. Of the 20,000 known meteorite discoveries, the brownish gray stone is only the 15th identified as coming from the red planet, scientists said this week.

"We're convinced it's from Mars," University of Tennessee geochemist Lawrence Taylor said. He analyzed samples of the Oman find with Mikhail Nazarov, a Russian colleague from the Vernadsky Institute in Moscow.

The rock has chemical similarities to a Mars meteorite found in Antarctica in 1984, which some NASA researchers said exhibits fossilized signs of microscopic life.

The meteorite researchers tried to keep their work quiet at the request of the finder. "The donor wished to remain anonymous until he can negotiate, that's as far as I know," Taylor said.

But Ron Baalke, a scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, learned of the meteorite this week at a rock and gem show in Costa Mesa, California.

"I understand about 800 grams (28 ounces) of it will on the market soon," Baalke wrote on his Mars Meteorite Web site.

A dealer selling meteorites from Oman provided Baalke with a description of the Mars rock, which had been submitted to the Meteoritical Society, an international organization of professional and amateur meteorite investigators.

Called the Dhofar 019, the 1,056-gram (37-ounce) stone seems to be made of martian basalt. It was picked up in the Dhofar region of the Sultanate of Oman, which occupies the eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

Oman's diverse geography includes beaches and mountains and the type of barren stretches that attract meteorite hunters.

"Desert regions seems to be good regions because things stand out like a sore thumb," Taylor said.



RELATED STORIES:
Glass holds grains of truth about Earth's meteor history
April 3, 2000
Rare meteorite promises glimpse into dawn of creation
March 17, 2000
Rock hunter finds second Mars meteorite known in U.S.
February 4, 2000

RELATED SITES:
Mars Meteorite Home Page
The Meteoritical Society

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