Nakhla meteorite
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The Nakhla meteorite, the first and eponymous example of a Nakhlite type meteorite of the SNC Group type of meteorites, fell to Earth, from Mars, on the 28th of June, 1911, at approximately 09:00 in the Nakhla region of Abu Hommos, Alexandria, Egypt.[1][2][3] The meteorite fell in forty pieces and was witnessed by many individuals to have exploded in the upper atmosphere and to have fallen into the ground, the fragments burying themselves up to a meter in depth in some places.
[edit] Martian origins
The Nakhla meteorite is now believed to have originated on Mars as part of the ejecta of the impact of another large body colliding with the Martian surface. The Nakhla meteorite is believed to have been thrown into space by the blast and travelled through the solar system for an unknown period of time before striking the Earth's atmosphere and landing in Egypt in 1911.
Furthermore, in 1999, scientists postulated that aspects of the Nakhla meteorite might support the evidence of life having existed on Mars[4] brought about by the examination of the ALH84001 Martian meteorite found in Antarctica.
The debate re-opened in February 2006 after NASA scientists were allowed to break open one of the fragments of the meteorite. They found within the pores of the rocks a complex mixture of carbon compounds, but said there was no strong evidence its origin was biological.[5]
[edit] The Nakhla dog
One such fragment of the Nakhla meteorite was said to be observed by a farmer named Mohammed Ali Effendi Hakim in the village of Denshal, near Nakhla, to have landed, not only in his field, but on a dog and, apparently, vaporized the animal.[6] Since, therefore, no remains of the dog were ever recovered and only one known eyewitness to the dog's death is known, this story remains apocryphal at best.[1] However, the story of the Nakhla dog has become something of a legend among astronomers and is even recorded in several editions of The Catalog of Meteorites.
At the time, the dog's death publicized in both Arabic and English newspapers as being the first recorded death of an animal, including humans, by a meteorite, though since then both the facts as to whether a dog was actually killed by meteorite in Nakhla and the notion that this was the first ever recorded animal fatality by meteorite have come into question.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "The Nakhla Meteorite" - From NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- ^ Nakhla SNC Martian Meteorite at the New England Meteoritical Services webpage
- ^ "Nakhla meteorite fragment" - From the Natural History Museum. Rotatable image of a fragment of the meteorite. URL accessed September 6, 2006.
- ^ "Scientists say Nakhla meteorite hints at life on Mars" - March 18, 1999 exn.ca News article by Steven Hunt. URL accessed September 6, 2006.
- ^ "Space rock re-opens Mars debate" - February 8, 2006 BBC News article. URL accessed September 6, 2006.
- ^ "The Nakhla Dog: A Century of Conflict" - From a company that sells meteorites
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