Core Sample
It
was the announcement by NASA in 1996 that possible life had been found
inside a
Martian meteorite that led me to the series of experiments described here.
For the first few days after I discovered the meteorite, I had no idea from
whence it came. But after thinking about the situation logically, I
decided that Mars was a likely place. The meteorite was clearly
volcanic and Mars seemed large enough to have volcanoes. The rock was
clearly red in the sunlight and Mars was known as the red planet. And
finally, Mars was in the right position in the solar system to get rocks to
Earth. It was a small planet, with lower gravity and thinner atmosphere,
and it was located outside Earth's orbit. The sun would insure that most
material dislodged from its surface would pass Earth's orbit on the way in, and
Mars proximity to the asteroid belt would assure that Mars would get pummeled
frequently to dislodge material.
I spent over a year trying to decide how to test the rock.
I wanted to try to get as much information about the rock as possible, but to
cause the least amount of damage to the rock. In many ways, the Frass
Meteorite is different from other meteorites. To be studied correctly, it
should be taken apart much like an archeological dig, where each piece is
carefully noted as to position and orientation. However, I don't have the
equipment to do that, so I tried to think what
might
be next best. Also, I very much wanted to see what was inside the rock and
try to see if the inside was like the outside. I finally settled on the
core sample.
After dealing with the rock for many years, I had come to
appreciate how delicate it was. In
order to show this feature, I decided
to use a copper tube, since copper is a very soft metal. Also, it is
basically pure copper, so any pure copper found in the sand is an easily
identifiable contaminant. The sample was taken by hammering the copper
tube into the rock. I found a convenient hole on the outside of the rock
that almost exactly the diameter of the tube. This held the tube in place
as I hit it with the hammer. At first, as I went through the fusion crust,
it was a little hard. But once I broke through to the interior, I could
have easily driven the copper tube all the way through the rock. This
fragile nature is evidence of the Martian origin of the Frass Meteorite.