Three of the great federal entities in the U.S. are renewing their agreement to search for the Antarctic meteorites. This will give a big help in learning more about the primitive building blocks of the solar system and revealing the truth about Earth’s neighboring planets, like the moon and Mars. The three said agencies are National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Smithsonian Institution (SI) are to work on Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program.
NASA, NSF, And SI To Search For Antarctic Meteorites Again
NASA, NSF and SI will be working together in collecting and curating Antarctic meteorites, forming a partnership called ANSMET or the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program. The agency recently signed an agreement to advance the program for an additional 10 years, which will replace an earlier agreement signed in 1980, NASA said in a statement. "Antarctic meteorites are posing new questions about the formation and early history of our solar system," Tim McCoy, Smithsonian meteorite scientist.
According to the report released by Nature World News, the U.S. has been searching for meteorites in Antarctica since 1976, and the ANSMET program has collected over 23,000 specimens. Among the first meteorites discovered were those that came from the Moon and Mars, and the ALH 84001 Martian meteorite, which helped renew interest in Mars exploration in the 1990s. Antarctica provides a unique environment for the collection of meteorites, because the cold desert climate preserves meteorites for long periods of time
"Some of these questions are spurring new exploration of the solar system by NASA missions," said MacCoy. According to scientists, asteroids that hit the Earth during its early days and the other bodies in the solar system may have played a significant role in the delivery of water and amino acids to planetary bodies, which could have been important in the development of life. A few meteorites originated on the Moon and Mars – blasted off the surfaces by large asteroid impacts and later falling to Earth.
What Are Antarctic Meteorites?
According to The TeCake, meteorites natural survived objects come from a variety of places in the solar system (in this case — on ice) and collected from the Earth’s surface. Impacts of asteroids on the ancient Earth and other bodies in the solar system also may have played a significant role in the delivery of volatiles (like water) and organic molecules (such as amino acids) to planetary bodies, which, in turn, could have been important to the development of life.
