4th Rock from the Sun

I was at the Melbourne Museum earlier this week. Wandering through the fascinating Minerals section, minding my own business, when suddenly, inside an ordinary glass case, this:




This is apparently a rock from Mars. If you can't read the label in the photo, it says that an asteroid hit Earth, and a bit of Mars flew off, and here it is. The piece itself is 2cm tall, 1 cm wide, and as thin as a silicon chip.

I didn't even know we had bits of Mars on Earth. It seems too incredible to be true. There was no info given on when, or where this bit landed. But its composition marks it as a Mars local.

I love Melbourne. The night before, I had been watching Shaun Tan's exquisite animation "The Lost Thing" on an open-air screen in Federation Square, and now, after brilliant coffee at Dr Java, I had wandered up the road and seen a piece of another planet.

I was in Melbourne to perform at the State Library of Victoria last Sunday, as part of the launch of their Young Readers Program CD -- it was great fun, and I'll post pics as soon as I have them.