APOD: Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec 11)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5610
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am

APOD: Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec 11)

Post by APOD Robot » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:06 am

Image Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica

Explanation: Where is the best place on Earth to find meteorites? Although meteors fall all over the world, they usually just sink to the bottom of an ocean, are buried by shifting terrain, or are easily confused with terrestrial rocks. At the bottom of the Earth, however, in East Antarctica, huge sheets of blue ice remain pure and barren. When traversing such a sheet, a dark rock will stick out. These rocks have a high probability of being true meteorites -- likely pieces of another world. An explosion or impact might have catapulted these meteorites from the Moon, Mars, or even an asteroid, yielding valuable information about these distant worlds and our early Solar System. Small teams of snowmobiling explorers so far have found thousands. Pictured above, ice-trekkers search a field 25-kilometers in front of Otway Massif in the Transantarctic Mountain Range during the Antarctic summer of 1995-1996. The week marks the 100th anniversary of humans first reaching the Earth's South Pole.

<< Previous APODDiscuss Any APOD Next APOD >>
[/b]

User avatar
Beyond
500 Gigaderps
Posts: 6889
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:09 am
Location: BEYONDER LAND

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Beyond » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:37 am

Meteorites are cool 8-) , but datsa toooooo cold for me :!: :!: BRRR......
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13877
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Ann » Sun Dec 11, 2011 7:28 am

It certainly makes sense to look for meteorites in Antarctica, because Antarctica is one of the most "unchanging" parts of the world. Yes, it is changing now due to global warming, but there is no vegetation there there that can cover the meteorites with moss or bury them slowly under grass or thickets of shrubs. There is not even any sand that can cover them. Interestingly, Antarctica is the closest thing we've got on the Earth to one of those icy moons of Saturn. The landscape may be melting, but it is still mostly frozen.

And there really is such a thing as "blue ice". Check out this picture. The weather is cloudy and grey, but the blue ice is very blue.

Ann
Color Commentator

biddie67
Science Officer
Posts: 483
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:44 am
Location: Possum Hollow, NW Florida

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by biddie67 » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:03 pm

What an awesome vastness!! I'd love to pop in for a brief visit ~~ and find a meterorite.

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:41 pm

biddie67 wrote:What an awesome vastness!! I'd love to pop in for a brief visit ~~ and find a meterorite.
I'll pass! I'm not a cold weather person! :mrgreen:
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

Yana

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Yana » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:26 pm

A boring image. Yes, Antarctica is a good place to look for meteorites, but there are so many beautiful images of Antarctica.

nebosite

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by nebosite » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:53 pm

This is an exact repeat of a previous APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080907.html

C'mon APOD! Could you least find a *different* picture of an antarctic meteorite hunting expedition?

-e

Zarathoostra
Asternaut
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:26 pm

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Zarathoostra » Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:53 pm

Along with the contrast being a major role in searching for meteorites in Antarctica, the glacial congregation of sediment and the lack of humidity makes it an ideal location as well.

User avatar
geckzilla
Ocular Digitator
Posts: 9180
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:42 pm
Location: Modesto, CA

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by geckzilla » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:01 pm

nebosite wrote:This is an exact repeat of a previous APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080907.html

C'mon APOD! Could you least find a *different* picture of an antarctic meteorite hunting expedition?

-e
Saturday and Sunday are the editors' days off. Sometimes they throw in the occasional new picture but you should expect mostly repeats, unfortunately.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

henrystar
Ensign
Posts: 97
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:40 am

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by henrystar » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:21 pm

Yana wrote:A boring image. Yes, Antarctica is a good place to look for meteorites, but there are so many beautiful images of Antarctica.
A glorious, extremely exciting image! Shows that everything is mental, does it not? I see people in the search for new knowledge! Glory, glory, HALLELUJAH!

saturn2

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by saturn2 » Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:34 am

Antarctica is the best place on Earth to find meteorites.
Antarctica is the best place on Earth " to find "neutrinos, too.
In Antarctica is a big observatory of neutrinos of high energy.

TNT
Science Officer
Posts: 289
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:57 am
Location: Heart of America

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by TNT » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:50 am

orin stepanek wrote:
biddie67 wrote:What an awesome vastness!! I'd love to pop in for a brief visit ~~ and find a meterorite.
I'll pass! I'm not a cold weather person! :mrgreen:
I'd like to travel to Antarctica to find meteorites!
The following statement is true.
The above statement is false.

bronxred
Asternaut
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:01 pm

Re: APOD: Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec 1

Post by bronxred » Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:07 pm

Does anyone know what is going on in that mountain range behind the ice sheet? Is that cloud on top of the mountains simply a large, somewhat vertically oriented cloud above the lower cloud sheet, or is it circling a mountain peak that is actually about the same height? It looks like a gigantic, volcano-like peak is poking up through the clouds in the middle there.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1112/me ... y_3000.jpg

To the peeps in charge of APOD: Thanks for all the great images & descriptions!

Best, Newbie Jake

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18623
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA

Re: APOD: Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec 1

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:13 pm

bronxred wrote:Does anyone know what is going on in that mountain range behind the ice sheet? Is that cloud on top of the mountains simply a large, somewhat vertically oriented cloud above the lower cloud sheet, or is it circling a mountain peak that is actually about the same height? It looks like a gigantic, volcano-like peak is poking up through the clouds in the middle there.
I think this is just an orographic cloud structure- clouds formed when air is pushed up into a condensation zone by mountains.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

Sean Alsante

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Sean Alsante » Sun Dec 18, 2011 5:25 pm

Ann wrote:It certainly makes sense to look for meteorites in Antarctica, because Antarctica is one of the most "unchanging" parts of the world. Yes, it is changing now due to global warming, but there is no vegetation there there that can cover the meteorites with moss or bury them slowly under grass or thickets of shrubs. There is not even any sand that can cover them. Interestingly, Antarctica is the closest thing we've got on the Earth to one of those icy moons of Saturn. The landscape may be melting, but it is still mostly frozen.

And there really is such a thing as "blue ice". Check out this picture. The weather is cloudy and grey, but the blue ice is very blue.

Ann
~
Good point and indeed Beautiful.
But we had better hurry! We will likely lose that as well in perhaps as little as 200 Years. Then all those nuggets of Information fall to the bottom of the Ocean as well...

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18623
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA

Re: APOD: - Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2011 Dec

Post by Chris Peterson » Sun Dec 18, 2011 5:33 pm

Sean Alsante wrote:But we had better hurry! We will likely lose that as well in perhaps as little as 200 Years. Then all those nuggets of Information fall to the bottom of the Ocean as well...
I think most are likely to end up on the underlying land, not to be washed into the ocean. But either way, we'll lose most of them.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com