00:00Hey, look at this rock.
00:02At first sight, it looks like a regular boring rock, the likes of which you can see when
00:06walking along the beach.
00:08Its color doesn't stand out, and its weight is pretty regular – around 4 pounds.
00:13But everything changes when you learn that this rock was born on Mars, traveled all the
00:17way to Earth, and ended up in Antarctica.
00:20Ah, now the story sounds much more fascinating, so let's find out the details.
00:26Researcher Roberta Skor, who worked on the ANSMET project, which stands for Antarctic
00:31Search for Meteorites, of the Denver Antarctic Program, found this meteorite in 1984.
00:37If you want to decipher the name of the space traveler, I can help you.
00:41It comes from the place where the scientists spotted it, the Allen Hills of Antarctica,
00:46hence ALH.
00:48And then we've got the year of the discovery and the number of the sample.
00:52If you think that Roberta picked up the rock and exclaimed something like, woohoo, I'm
00:56holding a chunk of Mars, I'll have to disappoint you.
00:59At the very beginning, it was totally unclear where the meteorite came from.
01:03And one thing confused researchers even more – the meteor was very different from other
01:08meteorite groups found on our planet.
01:10Okay, but then how did they finally figure out it was a visitor from Mars?
01:16All thanks to traces of gas similar to those that make up the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
01:21We learned about its composition thanks to the brave Viking lander that carried out the
01:25necessary analysis in situ in 1976.
01:29Anyway, back to our rocky discovery.
01:32It's actually very special, and not only because the rock arrived from far, far away.
01:38Among those several thousand meteorites found on Earth, just around a hundred have likely
01:42come from Mars.
01:44And even so, our guy is different from them and seems to be part of a separate group.
01:50So let's go into the past and follow the life story of this cosmic traveler.
01:54It most likely formed around 4 billion years ago on its home Red Planet.
01:59One day, which wasn't very different from others, turned out to be life-changing for
02:03this peaceful rock.
02:04A meteorite impact catapulted it into space, and it started its own journey as a small
02:10asteroid.
02:11At that time, it was way larger than at the moment of discovery on Earth.
02:15At one point, ALH got close to Earth and, who knows, probably decided to explore something.
02:22That's how, 13,000 years ago, it ended its space journey by colliding with our planet.
02:28At the moment, this Martian fragment is the oldest we've got.
02:32But at first, it wasn't all that popular.
02:35Only in 1996 did it become way more famous after a groundbreaking discovery.
02:40You see, some NASA researchers started wondering, well, the fragment is obviously very old.
02:46But then, could it have recorded any traces of life that could've been thriving on Mars
02:51at the time ALH formed on the Red Planet?
02:54And guess what?
02:55Those scientists turned out to be right.
03:00They detected traces of very fine magnetite particles.
03:04Those were completely similar in structure and chemical composition to the particles
03:07we have on Earth.
03:08They're called magnetofossils, and magnetotactic bacteria produced them.
03:14So it might mean that, at one point, there were some forms of life on Mars.
03:19In April 2020, scientists from the Japanese Space Agency made another discovery.
03:24They detected nitrogen, containing organic material of Martian origin, in our meteorite.
03:30So who knows what new astounding secrets further examination of the meteorite might reveal.
03:37At the moment, though, all you can do is travel to Antarctica and find more of them.
03:42The thing is, this place is great for meteorite hunting.
03:47Surprisingly, we have found nearly 50,000 meteorites in Antarctica, and hundreds of
03:53thousands are still waiting to be discovered.
03:55Each of these space rocks can tell us a story of the evolution of the Solar System.
04:00For example, the very first lunar rock found on the icy deserted continent proved that
04:05chunks of space objects larger than asteroids can also end up on Earth.
04:10So let's say you got inspired and decided to go meteorite hunting all the way to Antarctica.
04:16Well, get ready for some serious challenges.
04:19Despite their potential abundance, finding space rocks isn't as easy as it might seem.
04:24You'll have to visit remote areas, and there's still no guarantee that you'll be able to
04:29spot a meteorite.
04:30And that's actually a huge problem.
04:33Meteorites are vanishing from sight.
04:36Currently, scientists find about 1,000 meteorites in Antarctica each year.
04:43But according to a new study, about 5,000 more get hidden out of sight every year.
04:48The culprit is warming temperatures.
04:51Worried scientists created a model that could help them figure out where those meteorites
04:55might surface.
04:56This model was quite complicated, taking into consideration snow cover, surface temperature,
05:01the speed at which ice flows, and even the steepness of the terrain.
05:06After that, they ran simulations under various warming scenarios.
05:10It turned out that meteorites indeed sank out of sight as temperatures rose.
05:15To say that the researchers were upset is obvious.
05:17They didn't expect that climate change would affect their work so much.
05:22Even though those areas are below freezing, people still managed to ruin a crucial archive
05:27of the Solar System.
05:30But let's get back to your meteorite hunt.
05:32If you want your chances to find one to be higher, travel to the base of mountains or
05:36outcrops where ice, which usually flows to the lower ground, is forced to move upward.
05:42But make sure to take your windbreaker with you.
05:45In those places, powerful winds brush away snow, exposing bright, vivid blue ice.
05:51Instead of melting, this ancient ice can change directly into water vapor, and it helps expose
05:56meteorites that would otherwise remain hidden.
05:59You need to hurry, though.
06:01Meteorites at the surface disappear quickly.
06:03Even when temperatures are well below freezing, the rocks can still absorb some of the sun's
06:08heat and melt the ice.
06:09It's like they're creating underground – or shall I say, under ice – tunnels
06:13for themselves, sinking and hiding from sight.
06:17Sometime later, refreezing closes the entrance to those tunnels, effectively trapping meteorites
06:22inside, tucked out of sight.
06:28Scientists admit it's very tricky to find working methods to spot meteorites.
06:32And if we don't hurry and develop such methods, we might lose between 80,000 and 250,000 space
06:38rocks in total.
06:40No wonder scientists are on a mission to find more meteorites.
06:43They're focusing on meteorite stranding zones.
06:46Those are places where meteorites often gather on the surface because of specific features
06:51of geology, ice flow, and climate conditions.
06:55As you already know, you can find meteorites on blue ice without snow cover.
06:59This makes meteorites easy to spot.
07:02Finding such hotspots is often pure luck.
07:05Or you gotta sit day and night scouring maps and satellite images in attempts to spot blue
07:11ice zones near research stations.
07:15Let me introduce Veronica Tolenor, a glaciologist and her team.
07:19They've taken things to the next level by developing a smart Antarctic-wide map.
07:24To do it, they've used machine learning and satellite data from NASA, the Canadian
07:28Space Agency, and others.
07:31This map highlights areas where meteorites might be hiding based on past finds and all
07:36kinds of climate and ice data.
07:38Apparently, the best places to find meteorites are along the edges of the continent and near
07:43mountains with blue ice.
07:45Unfortunately, it's not just the blue ice that matters.
07:49The temperature and speed of the ice flow are also super important.
07:53For example, if the ice flows too quickly, meteorites get swept away before they can
07:58accumulate.
07:59So, if you want to find a meteorite, you have to wait for very precise conditions.
08:04The surface temperature has to stay below 16 degrees Fahrenheit almost all the time,
08:09otherwise, meteorites sink.
08:13You can start with the Allen Hills region.
08:15Yup, that's where our ALH friend was discovered.
08:18This area is kind of a meteorite gold mine with more than a thousand finds.
08:23But there are even more promising places, like the Thimble-Hyman Mountains, and no one
08:27has searched there yet.
08:29You might be the first.
08:31In any case, with this new map, researchers developed a where-to-go index that ranks the
08:36best meteorite hunting spots, making future field trips much more targeted.
08:42And with plenty of blue ice regions still unexplored, there are tons of meteorites just
08:46waiting to be found.
08:48So what are you waiting for?
08:51That's it for today!
08:52So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:56friends!
08:57And if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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