From the Edited Guide - Mars Rock Baffles Scientists
Created | Updated Mar 31, 2013
Mars Rock Baffles Scientists
A rock from Mars just found in the Sahara desert has taken scientists by surprise, though not because it's from Mars. That fact alone is not unusual. While meteorites mostly come from the asteroid belt, a few can be traced to Mars. Scientists have previously postulated that an asteroid may have struck Mars and bounced rocks into space. Some of these would eventually fall to Earth where, indeed, many have been found.
What is unusual is its makeup. The recently found Mars rock on Earth (dubbed Mr E) is volcanic, it shows signs of interaction with water, and it looks similar to ones that NASA's rover Spirit is currently inspecting on Mars. It's also quite old – about 2 billion years.
The ones we've found to date that trace to Mars are clearly rubble and Mars researchers have been puzzled by the apparent disconnect between these and samples from Spirit which are clearly volcanic and show signs of interaction with water. Plus, the rocks that we're finding on Mars just plain look different than the ones we've been finding here on Earth. Until now, that is.
Conspiracy theorists have been quick to point out how this clearly shows that the orbit of Mars was altered by its inhabitants using controlled volcanic jets and, what is more, the recent discovery was made at about the end of the Mayan calendar, which of course, they say, proves it.
'But that's just nonsense,' according to NASA scientist Aldus Agree. 'The ancient Mr E shares many of the same qualities that we are finding in Spirit', he says, 'and what is actually most surprising is that Spirit's exquisitely accurate carbon datings are returning negative numbers, meaning that its samples are from the future. Clearly we've been looking at this backwards. The evidence is showing us that there are rocks on Mars similar to our Mr E that have originated on Earth, and not the other way around. What we now know is that we will travel to Mars in our future and use materials from Earth to terraform it. Then at some further point, civilization on Earth collapses into a heap, those remaining on Mars eventually discover time travel, and then return to Earth at least 2 billion years ago to precolonize it.'
We have met the Martians, and they are us.
