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Space Topics: Planetary Analogs

The Antarctic Search for Meteorites

2008-2009 Field Expedition Blogs

In Antarctica!
In Antarctica!
Credit: ANSMET

Meteorites fall on Earth every day, but most are never found because they land in the ocean or in an environment where they are difficult to spot against the background noise of other rocks. Antarctica is one of the best places in the world to hunt for meteorites, because they are easy to spot against the bright ice and because some of the glacial processes that prevail in Antarctica actually concentrate meteorites, exposing thousands of years' worth of meteorite falls at the surface of the glacial ice.

Since 1976, the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) project has conducted yearly expeditions to the Antarctic to find these meteorites and send them back to laboratories across Earth for study. During the 2008-2009 season, the seven-member expedition team is posting daily blog entries via an Iridium satellite phone, which they have given permission to The Planetary Society to repost here.

Who's Going, and Where We Are Going

Expedition Blogs
January 26-29, 2009: Return to Civilization
January 19-26, 2009: Snow Ends the Season
January 14-18, 2009: Tantalizingly Close to the 500-Meteorite Mark
January 9-13, 2009: In Which Bad Days Provide More Blog Fodder Than Good Days
January 5-8, 2009: 237 Meteorites Await the Long Drive to Houston
December 30, 2008 - January 4, 2009: The Antarctic Deep Field Is Not for the Impatient
December 23-29, 2008: Put-in at Last; A Week of Productive Searches
December 17-22, 2008: More Waiting; Runway's Ready; Ralph Goes Home
December 11-17, 2008: A Week's Delay in McMurdo; First 20 Meteorites Found
December 4-10, 2008: Preparations in McMurdo
December 2-3, 2008: Reporting from Christchurch, New Zealand
November 25, 2008: Welcome to the 2008-2009 ANSMET Blog; Who We Are; Where We're Going