|
Author
|
Topic: Meteorite with alien life from Saturnian moon?
|
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
|
posted 11-28-2010 04:46 AM
   
Amazing story: Ice Meteorite Found with Extraterrestrial Life-Forms Brings back memories of the Martian meteorite ALH84001 found in Antarctica...
What do You think? |
ilbasso
Member Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006
|
posted 11-28-2010 06:14 AM
The fact that the press conference is being held at a Ramada Inn, rather than at a university or other such place, and the press release being full of typos liberally using ALL CAPS, give me a healthy dose of skepticism... |
Lunar rock nut
Member Posts: 911
From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A.
Registered: Feb 2007
|
posted 11-28-2010 06:18 AM
I have not heard of this before. When and where was this fall? Is this Joe Dirt's lucky meteorite? |
David Bryant
Member Posts: 986
From: Norfolk UK
Registered: Feb 2005
|
posted 11-28-2010 10:22 AM
Well: as a professional meteorite dealer and lecturer, I can assure everyone that this is a piece of hokum!Meteorites are known from the Moon and Mars, with possibles from the Earth and Mercury: there is even a chance that carbonados may originate on Uranus or Neptune. But nothing (particularly not lumps of ice!) could escape the gravity wells of Saturn or Jupiter! |
paulushumungus
Member Posts: 466
From: Burton, Derbyshire, England
Registered: Oct 2005
|
posted 11-28-2010 01:28 PM
That's good enough for me then David. |
SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 11-28-2010 01:57 PM
There's no material to liberate and escape from the "surface" of either planet but that doesn't preclude meteoritic material originating from their satellites which do have relatively low escape velocities due to mass, distance from the host planet. |
David Bryant
Member Posts: 986
From: Norfolk UK
Registered: Feb 2005
|
posted 11-28-2010 03:05 PM
Sorry: faulty logic!Just because the moons themselves have low escape velocities, material ejected from the surface is still subject to the gravitational attraction of the primary planets: after all, that's what holds the moons themselves in their orbits. Also: how exactly have lumps of ice survived the ablationary heating that melts iron and stony meteorites that are swept up by the Earth? This concept is as spurious and ill-informed as Dan Brown's novel 'Deception Point' in which fossil crustaceans are discovered in a chondritic meteorite! ( And if you don't know why that's ridiculous, then, with respect, you don't know enough about meteorites to comment on the 'Ramada Inn' object! |
SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 11-28-2010 06:20 PM
Not really... (and I was not commenting on the viability of ice transfer - only that an exchange of material between the Jupiter and Earth planetary system is possible).Gravity assist trajectories are a reality (we have used them successfully, including slingshots around the gas giants for some of our robotic missions to the outer planets). The component velocities of a shallow angle impactor on the moon (coupled with that satellite's orbital velocity around the host planet) can be sufficient to send ejecta out of the gravity well. Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted at Jovian escape velocity (had it instead struck one of the satellites at the correct aspect angle there would be some outbound material tossed into the rest of the solar system). In addition the escape velocity out of the Jovian (or any other planetary) system is less from the moon then the surface of the host planet in part as a result of Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation which prescribes that gravitational force on an object is inversely proportional to the square of its distance - in particular for the outboard moons of both planetary systems, which orbit at considerable distances from the host planet its highly likely there is affiliated ejecta circulating in the rest of the solar system for collection. |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
|
posted 11-28-2010 06:28 PM
Well, it must have struck earth in the winter time or else it would have melted.  |
rjurek349
Member Posts: 1190
From: Northwest Indiana
Registered: Jan 2002
|
posted 11-28-2010 07:40 PM
What a scam. Did you click through to their website? They are selling pictures, and then selling copies of the analysis reports. They are offering a $10,000 and $5,000 reward, respectively, for people who can disprove the analysis and their findings. But in order to do that, you have to first "buy" the reports, but they are non-refundable purchases. What a scam. I'd call it brilliant, if it wasn't an "ice" meteor. Back home, we call that hail. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1306
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
|
posted 11-28-2010 09:10 PM
Let me get this right, there selling ice in the winter time? |
David Bryant
Member Posts: 986
From: Norfolk UK
Registered: Feb 2005
|
posted 11-28-2010 09:28 PM
It's generally believed that material from impacts on Jupiter's moons (and Saturn's, too) contributes to the ring systems of both planets. An oblique impact on a Jovian moon expelling debris at greater than the immense escape velocity of the Jupiter system is as unlikely as an impact on Mercury expelling debris at solar escape velocity. |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
|
posted 11-29-2010 03:17 AM
Indeed, there Achondrites from the Moon (Lunar Breccia and Lunar Basalt), from Mars (Shergottites, Nakhlites, Chasignites and Orthopyroxene such as ALH84001), even from the Asteroids ( 4 Vesta brought us Howardites, Eucrites, Diogenites & Olivines ) but I have never seen meteorites originating from beyond Jupiter ... |
Lunar rock nut
Member Posts: 911
From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A.
Registered: Feb 2007
|
posted 11-29-2010 04:44 AM
Interesting read from Meteorite Quarterly Nov. 2006 PDF The problem with Ice Meteorites |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
|
posted 11-29-2010 08:55 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Lunar rock nut:
Interesting read from Meteorite Quarterly Nov. 2006
Yea I did some research too and it turns out that it's not all that straight forward that a chunk of ice would melt entering earth's atmosphere. But it is highly improbable that it would make it. |
advertisement