Mars rocks

Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Mon, 19 Aug 1996 21:45:02 -0700

Andray Dunnan:
>First of all, how do the scientists know this rock came from Mars? We
>haven't physically retrieved rocks from Mars yet, so on what basis can they
>make this assertion?

Hara Ra:
: When a meterorite hits the Earth, Mars, or the Moon, the ejecta sometimes
: hits [sic] the Earth. These fragments are called tektites. The minerals in
: tektites have different isotopic compositions which identify their origin.

That's half an answer. Okay, we can classify rocks by their isotopes,
but how do we know that one of these classes comes from Mars?
By spectrographic examination of Mars?

Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com