Today, I got to join Professor Rudnick’s class on a trip to the Smithsonian. I never expected there to be any surprises. It was billed to be a trip to see the rock and meteorite collection. In my graduate school petrology class, I had seen and held meteorites before. But this trip was different: for the first time I learnt something entirely new. It turns out that a piece of mars was actually discovered from my home country Nigeria. It was really exciting to know this. A messenger from space, fell in Nigeria, was transported to the smithsonian, analyzed and the chemical signature interpreted as coming from Mars. And now, I had it in my hands. And here are the photos to prove it. Lesson learnt: go on field trips more often. A bit thank you to Professor Rudnick for organizing the class and to all the tireless work by scientists everywhere who make the science possible, and to the smithsonian for this scientific history lesson.
Here is a paper that discusses this meteorite: NASA paper on Zagami
