American scientists yesterday [January 14] proudly displayed a meteorite which, they said, could prove as scientifically valuable as the moon samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. The 10-kilo lump of grey rock was found on a snowy cart track in Oklahoma last week after automatic cameras picked up its fiery trail through the earth’s atmosphere. It is the first meteorite which has been recovered promptly after crashing to earth, the scientists said. With the aid of 16 unmanned tracking stations scattered across the mid-western States, the American scientists have been trying for five years to pinpoint a meteorite landing so that it could be recovered and examined before becoming contaminated by earth molecules. Until this month, all their efforts had failed. The meteorite, a bit smaller than a football, came down on January 3. Scientists have begun preliminary examination of the meteorite which came from beyond Mars. They wanted what they called a fresh meteorite for analysis of radio-activities caused by cosmic ray bombardment during the trip through space. These radio-active “Finger prints” provide valuable clues to the composition and history of the universe, officials explained.
