Martin Prmz. AMNH 
Because of their pristine condition 
and scientific value, Antarctic mete- 
orites are handled with the same care 
that is given to lunar rocks. Beginning 
with the 1977-78 field season, the fol- 
lowing procedures have been followed. 
After being photographed in place, 
the meteorites are wrapped in Teflon 
bags, sealed with tape, and packed 
in sterile, padded metal boxes pro- 
vided by the Johnson Space Center 
in Houston. The boxes are flown to 
McMurdo Station and then shipped 
refrigerated' to the Space Center, 
where they are unpacked and the me- 
teorites are placed in a cold storage 
room at -40 "C. Each bag, containing 
one or more meteorites, is transferred 
from the storage room to the process- 
ing laboratory, where every meteorite 
is compared to its field photograph 
to confirm its identity. Each meteorite 
is then rephotographed (usually from 
several angles) and weighed; its ex- 
ternal features are described; a chip 
is taken for thin sectioning and petro- 
graphic description; and a permanent 
number is assigned. Once they have 
been documented, the meteorites are 
sent to researchers according to the 
procedures previously established for 
lunar rocks. As soon as possible after 
receipt at the Space Center, a piece 
of each meteorite is sent to the Smith- 
sonian Institution in Washington, 
where I am responsible for the initial 
description, classification, and publi- 
cation of the descriptions. 
Meteorites are normally named for 
the geographical feature (town, river, 
mountain, and so forth) nearest to 
their place of discovery. This proce- 
Left: Many chondrules can be seen in 
this section of an ordinary chondrite 
from Allan Hills. This meteorite 
resembles ordinary chondrites found 
in other parts of the world. Right: A 
thin section through an achondrite 
shows no chondrules. This meteorite 
looks like certain kinds of terrestrial 
igneous rocks. 
Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico 
dure, however, is clearly impractical 
for large concentrations of meteorites 
found in small areas, and a name- 
and-number combination has been 
adopted. This combination is a three- 
letter abbreviation for the locality (for 
example, ALH for Allan Hills); a let- 
ter for the field party (A for the first 
party, B for the second, and so on); 
two digits for the year of the field 
season (77 for the 1977-78 season); 
and a three-digit number that iden- 
tifies the individual specimen. Thus 
specimens collected by the first field 
party at Allan Hills during the 1977- 
78 season are numbered from 
ALHA77001 through ALHA77307. 
Meteorites have been aptly de- 
scribed as the poor man’s space probes 
— extraterrestrial materials arriving 
cost-free from outer space and car- 
rying within them a history, albeit im- 
perfectly preserved and difficult to de- 
cipher, of events in the universe over 
the past five billion years. The dis- 
covery of the Antarctic meteorites pro- 
vided a large supply of unique re- 
search materials at a propitious time 
— when a large number of laboratories 
and scientists experienced in the in- 
vestigation of lunar rocks were ready 
and anxious to extend their research 
to other extraterrestrial material. A 
fruitful cooperation among specialists 
in Antarctic meteorites, specialists in 
lunar rocks, and those studying other 
planetary bodies has been established, 
and concurrent investigations of these 
materials are providing comparative 
studies of wide-ranging importance for 
our comprehension of the origin and 
evolution of the solar system. □ 
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