One question we got for the virtual tour was this:

Where can I get genuine Antarctic meteorites? Is there anyone who ships them to the US?

As it turns out, Christopher Cokinos, one of the contributors to Antarctica: Life on the Ice has an essay in the collection about searching for meteorites on the polar plateau. The photo here shows researchers on snowmobiles, combing the ice for meteorites. One of them could be Chris. I post this photo so you can get a sense of how vast the landscape is, especially when you are looking for something as small as a meteorite (see the next photo).

Chris is the editor of one of my favorite journals, Isotope, which publishes literary essays focused on science and the natural world. Chris is just finishing a book on meteorites, titled, The Fallen Sky: A Private History of Shooting Stars, to be published by Tarcher/Penguin in the fall of 08 or Spring of 09--I'll keep you posted. Here, then is his response about buying Antarctic meteorites:

(This is not a photo of Chris, but rather of Associate professor Dante Lauretta, from the University of Arizona--where I got my MFA--who was a member of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program. Those meteorites are small, no?)

From Chris Cokinos, answering the question if you can buy Antarctic meteorites: The answer is essentially no.  You can't buy the meteorites collected by

the U.S. government-sponsored teams.  However, there are some Antarctic meteorites

in collections around the world that were not so gathered.  Potentially,

one could see such a specimen for sale.  I see some for sale every once in

awhile.  The price could vary wildly, and I would be extremely wary of

so-called Antarctic meteorites for sale, unless they are being offered by

respected dealers.  There's a group called the International Meteorite Collectors

Association, and though some very fine dealers may choose not to belong,

those that do are to uphold high standards of practice.  But I'd reiterate

that the meteorites collected by ANSMET--the Antarctic Search for Meteorites--are

in the public domain.  They go to the Johnson Space Center and to the Smithsonian

where they are described and made available for free for researchers around

the world.  Members of ANSMET understand that theirs is a team activity and

that no meteorites--not even a tiny fleck of one--belong to us individually.

There are no tokens, no treasure hunts.  In the course of my research, I

did come across allegations that in the past various people (pilots, others)

had "poached" meteorites; I won't name names and I didn't pursue the gossip,

but it seems reasonable enough.  Also, there have been private meteorite-gathering

trips and "observing" trips; I wouldn't be surprised if some such specimens

might make it to the marketplace.  But ANSMET's lead scientist, Ralph Harvey,

does a bang-up job of making sure the ANSMET members and all the support

personnel understand there are no souvenirs.

Because here's the real

treasure story: what these meteorites tell us about the solar system.  ANSMET

is the only reliable source of extra-planetary materials going.  Until sample

returns from the asteroid belt are commonplace, this will remain so.   Just

today I read about a presentation concerning the famous ALH84001 meteorite--this

was the meteorite that a decade ago a scientific team said might contain

Martian microfossils.  That meteorite, according to Science magazine, really

launched the whole field of astrobiology.  In the meantime, the vast majority

of the scientific community has come to dismiss the claims of Martian microfossils.

But today another group of researchers has found evidence that this meteorite

contains the building blocks of life--various organic materials--though not

life itself.  If this result holds up, it's huge.  It would be the first

confirmation of an environment on Mars (very cold but volcanic) in which

life's building blocks formed.

After my trip to Antarctica I had a

chance to visit the curation facilities at JSC, where Kevin Righter's staff

showed me ALH84001.  It's the perfect example of the ironies of meteorites.

If you didn't know any better, it would like like a chunk of worn driveway.

But knowing what it might contain and knowing it had been blown off Mars

to land on the polar plateau...well, that's pretty damn cool.  And now it

might lead us to places on Mars where we could find life's remains--or maybe

living microbes.

Thanks Chris! for this marvelous explaintion.