Martian Meteorite | Swayyah 002 — End Piece Of Martian Meteorite With Martian Atmosphere

Specimens of Mars are among the rarest substances on Earth — less than 275 kilograms is known to exist and all of it would easily fit under a single bed. Martian specimens arrived on Earth as a result of a massive asteroid impact on the Martian surface which ejected chunks of material into interplanetary space, some of which entered an Earth-crossing orbit. While there are numerous chemical and isotopic markers which suggest such stones are Martian in origin, in 1997 a historic analysis was published in which research was conducted on the glassy inclusions of two suspected Martian meteorites. Within the glass were tiny bubbles, and within these voids were tiny volumes of gas. This gas was analyzed and matched perfectly with the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking Missions to Mars.

The specimen now offered was discovered in early 2019 in the Sahara in the nation of Western Sahara. A mottled desert varnish patina covers the undulating exterior surface with its fine stippled texture. The cut and polished green-gray matrix reveals zoned clinopyroxene and maskelynite; the rare mineral baddeleyite is also present. Approximately three dozen glassy shock melt pockets are also seen and it can be confidently inferred there are tiny voids within some which contain Martian atmosphere.

The laboratory research of this stone was conducted by a team led by the world’s foremost classifier of lunar and Martian meteorites, Dr. Anthony Irving. On June 16^th, 2020, the findings of Martian origin were published in the 108th edition journal of record, the Meteoritical Bulletin. A copy of this publication accompanies this offering.