Sky Class | Iceland Pickup -Find Antarctic Intrax

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The "Air Class" of the Astronomical Museum is class!

The Antarctic continent is vast, with an area of ​​about 14 million square kilometers, with an average altitude of about 2400 meters. Under the extreme climate of the Antarctic wind and snow, dry and cold (minimum temperature of about -90 ° C), scientists search for meteorite samples from outside the earth (Figure 1) on ice-capped ice fields (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Antarctic Iceland

In 1969, the Japanese Antarctic Academy of Sciences found 9 meteorite on the blue ice in Yamashan, which belonged to 7 different types of meteorites. In 1973, the scientific research team from Japan discovered 12 meteorites in almost the same place, and 663 yuan was collected in 1974. These three discoveries indicate that there must be some kind of meteorite enrichment mechanism in the Antarctic Blue Ice area.

In 1992, Cassidy and others proposed the ice flow mode of meteorite enrichment, thinking that the ice cover containing meteorites was blocked by the mountains during the process of flowing to the ocean. The meteorite in the ice cover will gradually be exposed and enriched (Figure 2). The United States has launched decades of Antarctic meteorite search plan since 1976, collecting more than 22,000 meteorite. In my country, in 1989, after 7 times of Antarctic meteorite collection, China collected a total of 12,665 meteorite in the Groofshan area.

Figure 2. Antarctica meteorite enrichment mechanism

The collection of meteorite has become one of the most important Antarctic scientific examination tasks in the world. The summer of the Antarctic (winter in the northern hemisphere) is the golden window for the scientific research teams of various national scientific examinations to enter Antarctic. Through the interpretation of high -resolution satellite images, scientists set up the position of obstructing ice flowing barrier such as mountains and icefield peaks. Under sufficient logistics support conditions, scientists can go deep into the hinterland of the Antarctic Ice cover and use snow motorcycles or The walking network is searching for meteorites in the blue ice or ice cricket belt.

Because the meteorite passes through the earth's atmosphere, a black melting shell will be formed on its surface. The light -colored ice surface has a significant contrast with the black meteorite, which is easy to find meteorites. Nowadays, more than 50 meteorite enrichment areas have been found in Antarctica, and more than 50,000 meteorites have been collected. Antarctic meteorites are distributed along the mountains and Iceland Island peaks along the Antarctic Mountains, Yamato Mountains, and Grov Mountains. These mountains are effectively blocked and slowed down the speed of the ice sheet, providing natural conditions for meteorite stranding and enrichment.

(Beijing Astronomical Museum)

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