This 4.5 billion-year-old rock, labeled meteorite ALH84001, is believed to 
have once been a part of Mars and to contain fossil evidence that primitive 
life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. The rock is 
a portion of a meteorite that was dislodged from Mars by a huge impact about 
16 million years ago and that fell to Earth in Antarctica 13,000 years ago. 
The meteorite was found in Allan Hills ice field, Antarctica, by an annual 
expedition of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Meteorite Program 
in 1984. It is preserved for study at the Johnson Space Center's Meteorite 
Processing Laboratory in Houston.

Annie Platoff <aplatoff@gp401.jsc.nasa.gov>
Responsible NASA Official: Kelly Humphries <khumphri@gp301.jsc.nasa.gov>
7 August 1996