Antarctic Meteorites: Collection, Classification, Curation and Investigation
4:30 p.m. Discovery Station (in front of Welcome Center)
5:45 p.m. Planetarium presentation
6:45 p.m. Telescope observing at Public Observatory, weather permitting
The Antarctic Meteorites are collected every year in Antarctica by a group of scientists and other volunteers as part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and NASA. Cari Corrigan will discuss the research performed on these meteorites and how they are classified and curated at the National Museum of Natural History, whose scientists also conduct research on the collection.
The Smithsonian’s Stars Lecture Series is made possible by a grant from NASA.-
This 4.5 billion-year-old rock, labeled meteorite ALH84001, is believed to have once been a part of Mars and to contain fossil evidence that primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. The rock is a portion of a meteorite that was dislodged from Mars by a huge impact about 16 million years ago and that fell to Earth in Antarctica 13,000 years ago. The meteorite was found in Allan Hills ice field, Antarctica, by an annual expedition of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Meteorite Program in 1984. It is preserved for study at the Johnson Space Center's Meteorite Processing Laboratory in Houston.
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
6th St. and Independence Ave SW. Washington, DC 20560
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