In todays Netscapes “whats new” there is an article about a scientist finding a moon rock in Antartica. It seems space rocks are fairly easy to find in Antartica.
That being said it makes me wonder how a rock from the moon can leave moons surface with enough velocity to overcome gravity in the first place.
Via another larger rock hitting the Moon and throwing smaller chunks of Moon with enough velocity that they achieve escape velocity. These chunks then find their way to the neighborhood of the Earth where they become meteors. If the rock is big enough, it’ll reach the surface rather than burning up completely in the atmosphere.
Its easy to find space rocks in Antartica because its all ice. Any rock found sitting on top of the ice is likely from out of this world. Elsewhere in the world, unless a meteorite strike is witnessed or the meteor is big enough, the rock probably won’t look out of place enough to be worthy of notice.
They’ve also found pieces of Mars in Antartica too, including the famous one that might have fossils in it.
Didn’t you see Alien vs. Predator?
I figure the Predator race must have brought them.
OK so how often can/did this happen?
I would think it would take a mighty large meteror impact on the moon to get this all started.
I would think that hot rocks from outer space would just melt the ice and disappear
Escape velocity from the moon is only 2.4 kilometers per second (7900 fps). Space rocks typically come in going 20 kilometers per second.
Even a freshly fallen meteorite - at least of the size in question - will be no more than warm to the touch, so it won’t be hot enough for this to happen.
Since we have rocks from the moon and Mars,is it possible that Earth rocks are on other planets?http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050916.html