PROHABA.CO – The largest piece of rock from a Martian meteorite to ever fall to Earth is on display for the first time at Maine’s Museum of Minerals and Gems in Bethel, United States of America, Wednesday (1/9/2021) last week.
The piece of stone, named Taoudenni 002, weighs 14.5 kilograms and measures 25 centimeters at its widest point.
The lump of rock from Mars is thought to have reached Earth due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet.
“Mars rocks can fall to Earth as meteorites,” said Carl Agee, director of the Meteorite Institute at the University of New Mexico, as quoted by Live Science.
“They were ejected from Mars by a high-impact and energetic event,” he added.
After the impact of the powerful impact ejected the rock from Mars, they drift through space and eventually end up in orbit across Earth and around the Sun.
The rock from the red planet, Agee said, is by far the largest intact, uncut Martian meteorite on Earth.
According to him, there are about 300 pieces of Mars rock on Earth, with a total of about 227 kilograms.
Also read: NASA Successfully Extracts Air on Mars So Oxygen
However, collectors often break them down to sell them separately, so the number of known Mars meteorites on Earth is between 100 and 150 pieces.
A local meteor hunter found Taoudenni 002 near a salt mine in Mali, before the world’s leading meteorite trader Darryl Pitt bought it for Maine’s Museum of Minerals and Gems in April 2021.
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