To study the Solar System we often have to go to different celestial body and take samples , but sometimes the samples   are delivered to us . With this in mind , three federal organization , NASA , the National Science Foundation , and the Smithsonian Institution , have renew their partnership in hunting meteorites in Antarctica for an additional 10 .

The project is calledANSMET(Antarctica Search for Meteorites ) and it has been running since 1976 . It has so far lead to the find of more than 23,000 specimens including rocks coming from the Moon , Mars , and the asteroid knock .

Over the course of study of Earth ’s history , meteorite might have been   responsible for carry volatiles like water and organic topic to our major planet ’s open . By studying these meteorites , scientist are unlocking some of the enigma of the universe .

“ Antarctic meteorites are dumbfound new question about the formation and early history of our Solar   System , ”   say Smithsonian meteorite scientist Tim McCoy in astatement . “ Some of these doubt are spurring new geographic expedition of the Solar System by NASA missionary work . ”

Among these , there ’s the famousALH84001 meteoritefrom Mars , which was credibly blasted by an impact on the Red Planet about 3.6 billion years ago . This physical object is notorious as it contain some peculiar structures that were interpreted by some scientists as fossilised evidence of primitive biography on Mars .

Antarctica is an idealistic place for meteorite   hunt . The cold teetotal climate preserves specimen unchanged for a long catamenia of time , and the geological fault in the internal-combustion engine sheets actually serve in concentrating meteorite in some area , make it much easier for the researchers to find them and pull in them .

This immense collection has led to thousands of scientific publication , and it is open to any researcher that would wish to inquire further .

“ The vast scientific value of the ANSMET collection get not only from the meteorites themselves   but also from the fact they are deposited in two of the finest curation quickness in the world – at NASA and the Smithsonian – and are made freely and promptly usable to all qualified scientists who want to analyze them , ” said Jeffrey Grossman , program scientist for curation at NASA Headquarters .

Meteorites might be second samples of their original bodies , but they can still teach us a peck about them .