Cook Islands – 2009 – 5 Dollars – 400th Anniv. Observation of Mars (PROOF)

Description

Metal: Silver .925, copper plated
Weight: 25 g
Diameter: 38.61 mm
Quality: Antique-finish
Mintage: 2’500 pcs.
Features an original piece of mars meteorite.

Mars is an earth-like planet in our solar system. With a diameter of approximately 6800 kilometres it is about half the size of the earth. A high percentage of iron oxide (rust) is responsible for its reddish shimmer. Due to this (blood red) colour it was granted the Roman God of Wars name.

Through its brightness it was already known in ancient days. The planet Mars was observed more precisely for the first time with Galileo Galilei?s telescope. Up until today the fascination of this orb is unbowed. For the first time ever mars meteorite stone has been inserted in this coin edition. This stone belongs to the scarcest possessions a private persons can have. There are less than 100 kilograms of it worldwide.

How is a specification of the meteorite possible at all? The earth probes on Mars, Voyager, Rover or Phoenix, have examined the Martian soil intensively. This geological data served as a basis for the allocation of its origin by which the meteorites were defined. Therefore it could precisely be determined that this meteorite NWA 4925 of the type olivine-phyric shergottite originates from Mars.