KPDS 2012-2 Soru=42

For scientists to come up with accurate findings, a meteorite ----.

British scientists have begun studying a rare meteorite
to reveal more about the history of Mars. The rock,
named ‘Tissint’ after the Moroccan area where it
crashed in July 2011, was recovered from the ground
just five months later – not enough time to be too
contaminated. “The Tissint sample is probably the most
important meteorite to have landed on the Earth in the
last 100 years,” says Dr. Caroline Smith, curator of
meteorites at the Natural History Museum in London. An
analysis of the rock revealed its Martian origin. It would
have been removed from Mars when an asteroid struck
the planet, staying in space as debris before being
attracted by the Earth’s gravity. Of the 41,000 officially
recognized meteorites, 61 come from Mars and the
Tissint rock is only the fifth that was witnessed falling.
Dr. Tony Irving of Washington University, who
performed some initial analysis on the sample, does not
think there is much chance of finding fossilized life
within it. But the British team could reveal whether
minerals have been affected by water or contain
elements such as carbon. Smith says “We’re not looking
for microbes, but we’re looking for the chemical and
environmental signatures to indicate whether Mars, at
some point in its past, may have provided a suitable
environment for life to exist.”