September 17, 2024
TOKYO – The government has decided that a Martian meteorite discovered by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) in Antarctica will be the centerpiece of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. This will be the first time for the meteorite to be displayed to the public.
One of the largest such rocks ever found, the rock will be a symbol of the Expo, whose theme is designing future society for our lives, as it is a potential key for unraveling the origin of life.
JARE collected the Martian meteorite near Showa Station in November 2000. The meteorite is about the size of a rugby ball at 29 centimeters wide, 22 centimeters long and 16 centimeters high. It weighs 13 kilograms and is now stored at the National Institute of Polar Research.
The meteorite was determined to be from Mars after the institute analyzed rare gases trapped inside. It is believed to have been ejected from Mars about 10 million years ago and reached Earth tens of thousands years ago.
It contains minerals formed in the presence of water, providing evidence that water once existed on Mars.
The government is also considering showcasing the sample of sand from the asteroid Ryugu collected by Japan’s asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 in 2020.
Attention was drawn to the 1970 Osaka Expo by a moon rock collected during the Apollo 12 mission and displayed in the U.S. pavilion. The government is lobbying the U.S. government to display the rock again next year.
“The stage for space exploration is shifting from the moon to Mars. We want the Expo to be a place where the fascination of the frontier of space research is showcased,” a person connected to the Expo said.