00:00Hey, look at this rock.
00:02At first sight, it looks like a regular boring rock,
00:04the likes of which you can see when walking along the beach.
00:08Its color doesn't stand out, and its weight is pretty regular, around 4 pounds.
00:12But everything changes when you learn that this rock was born on Mars,
00:17traveled all the way to Earth, and ended up in Antarctica.
00:20Ah, now the story sounds much more fascinating.
00:23So let's find out the details.
00:26Researcher Roberta Skor, who worked on the ANSMET project,
00:30which stands for Antarctic Search for Meteorites, of the Denver Antarctic Program,
00:34found 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,
00:43the Allen Hills of Antarctica, hence ALH.
00:47And 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,
00:54Woo-hoo! I'm holding a chunk of Mars!
00:57I'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.
01:06The meteor was very different from other meteorite groups found on our planet.
01:11Okay, but then, how did they finally figure out it was a visitor from Mars?
01:15All thanks to traces of gas similar to those that make up the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
01:20We learned about its composition thanks to the brave Viking lander
01:25that carried out the necessary analysis in situ in 1976.
01:30Anyway, back to our rocky discovery.
01:32It's actually very special.
01:34And not only because the rock arrived from far, far away.
01:37Among those several thousand meteorites found on Earth,
01:41just around a hundred have likely come from Mars.
01:44And even so, our guy is different from them and seems to be part of a separate group.
01:49So, 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,
02:01turned out to be life-changing for this peaceful rock.
02:04A meteorite impact catapulted into space.
02:08And it started its own journey as a small asteroid.
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.
02:21That'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.
02:34Only in 1996 did it become way more famous after a groundbreaking discovery.
02:40You see, some NASA researchers started wondering,
02:43well, the fragment is obviously very old.
02:46But then, could it have recorded any traces of life that could have 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.
02:59They detected traces of very fine magnetite particles.
03:03Those were completely similar in structure and chemical composition to the particles we have on Earth.
03:08They're called magnetophossils, 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.
03:36At 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,
03:52and hundreds of thousands 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
04:04proved that chunks 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.
04:18Despite 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 spot a meteorite.
04:30And that's actually a huge problem.
04:32Meteorites are vanishing from science.
04:37Currently, scientists find about 1,000 meteorites in Antarctica each year.
04:42But, according to a new study, about 5,000 more get hidden out of sight every year.
04:47The culprit is warming temperatures.
04:50Worried scientists created a model that could help them figure out where those meteorites might 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.
05:05After that, they ran simulations under various warming scenarios.
05:09It turned out that meteorites indeed sank out of sight as temperatures rose.
05:14To say that the researchers were upset is obvious.
05:17They didn't expect that climate change would affect their work so much.
05:21Even though those areas are below freezing, people still managed to ruin a crucial archive of the solar system.
05:29But let's get back to your meteorite hunt.
05:31If you want your chances to find one to be higher, travel to the base of mountains or outcrops,
05:37where 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.
05:55And it helps expose meteorites that would otherwise remain hidden.
05:59You need to hurry, though.
06:00Meteorites at the surface disappear quickly.
06:03Even when temperatures are well below freezing, the rocks can still absorb some of the sun's heat and melt the ice.
06:09It's like they're creating underground, or shall I say under ice, tunnels for themselves, sinking and hiding from sight.
06:17Sometime later, refreezing closes the entrance to those tunnels, effectively trapping meteorites inside, tucked out of sight.
06:24Now, scientists 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 rocks in total.
06:39No 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 of geology, ice flow, and climate conditions.
06:54As you already know, you can find meteorites on blue ice without snow cover.
06:59This makes meteorites easy to spot.
07:01But finding such hot spots is often pure luck.
07:05Or you gotta sit day and night scouring maps and satellite images in attempts to spot blue ice zones near research stations.
07:14Let me introduce Veronica Tolanoff, 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 Space Agency, and others.
07:30This map highlights areas where meteorites might be hiding based on past finds and all kinds of climate and ice data.
07:38Apparently, the best places to find meteorites are along the edges of the continent and near mountains 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.
07:52For example, if the ice flows too quickly, meteorites get swept away before they can accumulate.
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.
08:11You 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 goldmine with more than a thousand finds.
08:23But there are even more promising places, like the Fimble-Hyman Mountains, and no one has searched there yet.
08:29You might be the first.
08:30In any case, with this new map, researchers developed a where-to-go index that ranks the best meteorite hunting spots, making future field trips much more targeted.
08:41And with plenty of blue ice regions still unexplored, there are tons of meteorites just waiting to be found.
08:48So, what are you waiting for?
08:49That's it for today.
08:52So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:57Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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