This past summer, I was blessed to have an internship in association with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Near the end of my 10 week internship, my group and I participated in an in-depth tour of NASA’s meteorite curation facility. This pristine laboratory contains tens of thousands of meteorites collected from around the world, especially Antarctica. Meteorites are rocks from space that fall to Earth and can inform scientists about different places and times in the life of our Solar System.
Entering the Lab
To enter the lab, we had to don white bunny suits to keep the meteorites pristine. Jewelry was not allowed, but in the humid Houston summer I couldn’t take my gold wedding band off! I was still allowed in, but I had to wear an extra glove over my left hand so atoms of gold from my ring wouldn’t contaminate the samples!
Examining the Meterorites
Three meteorites wrapped in plastic sitting on a special air-flow bench received a lot of attention from us. Our guide one of the curatorial staff explained to us that two of the samples were Martian meteorites and one was from the giant asteroid Vesta, currently being studied up-close by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft! I actually held in my hand rocks from Mars and an asteroid! One of those rocks was the famous ALH84001 which made a splash in the mid-1990’s about possibly containing fossils of Martian micro-organisms.
The reason we know these rocks came from Mars is because of the tiny holes in them, which are called vesicles. Vesicles contain trace amounts of gas. When NASA’s Viking landers touched down on Mars in the 1970s they sniffed the Martian air to determine the composition. The gas inside the meteorites vesicles has the exact same composition as Mars atmosphere. Plus, the rock is a type we would expect to come from Mars anyway (an orthopyroxenite).
As I stood in the meteorite lab holding this famous rock from Mars a sense of shear giddiness and delight overtook me. It stretched my imagination and sense of belief to realize that the ruddy point of light I glimpse so often in the night sky Mars shared part of itself with me in the form of these rocks.
Delighting in God
I left the space center that day feeling rich–rich that God had blessed me with the privilege of tangibly experiencing a bit more of his extravagant creation!
