Hello AIG members

Every day about 300 tons of rock falls into planet Earth - in the form of meteors from outer space.

The reason none of us have been hit on the head yet is because most of these rocks are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere (we call these flashes of light 'shooting stars').

At least three quarters of the relatively few rocks that do make it to the surface (called meteorites) end up in the oceans - so we don't get to see those either.

Every now and then though, we pick up a meteorite that has fallen on the ground - as happened on March 22, 1998, when several boys in Monahans, Texas picked up a stony meteorite.

It was immediately studied by NASA scientists, who discovered an unusual patch of salt crystals on the meteorite's surface, turned blue by radiation in space. Inside the blue crystals was an even bigger surprise - small droplets of water.

One of these round droplets is visible near the centre of the attached photograph.

This drop of water most likely dates from 4.5 billion years ago - from the early days of the Solar System. How water came to be attached to this chip of asteroid still remains speculative.

What did the boys do with the meteorite? First the lent it to NASA. Then they sold it on the Internet.

:-)

Regards