Antarctica has a strange secret: it’s one of the best places on Earth to find meteorites! This icy continent may seem like an odd spot, but there’s a reason so many space rocks are discovered there. When meteors land on the white ice, they’re way easier to spot than in rocky or forested areas. Plus, the ice sheets flow slowly and push buried meteorites toward the surface, making them even easier to find. The freezing temperatures also help preserve these space rocks, keeping them in great condition for scientists to study. So, despite Antarctica’s harsh conditions, it’s a goldmine for meteorite hunters looking to learn about our solar system! Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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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!
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