They hope Nomad will discover at least one new meteorite on its own.
Researchers from the University of Tennessee, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions analyzed grains of minerals called pyroxenes from one Martian meteorite, the Shergotty.
At one point, her fellow-panelist Denton Ebel, a geologist with a focus on meteorites, asked if anyone in the audience could explain the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.
Two opportunities have occurred in the last decades to display this collection to the public, during two temporary exhibitions: the first one, entitled: "Meteorites, Messengers of the Cosmos, and Space Experiments", dates back to 1969, the second one, entitled "Meteorites!", was held in 1996.
In composition, it is very similar to a certain type of meteorite, one that is porous and contains a fair amount of water.
Noting the irony that no one paid the meteorite much attention over the past 40 years, until the museum started promoting its existence.
Carbonaceous chondrites are rare -- only about one in 50 meteorites found on Earth is a carbonaceous chondrite -- because they burn up easily, and pieces that survive re-entry weather away quickly.
The scientists conducted shock experiments on samples of two porous meteorites, one a hydrated type, the other an anhydrous, or waterless, type.
Iron meteorites are one of three types of meteorites, the other two being stony and stony-iron meteorites.
In meteorites, one can study the decay products of such short-lived nuclei and can discover their abundance when the meteorites were formed.
