How cool is this!
After years and years of hearing sci-fi shows and movies talk about substances “not found on this planet,” we’ve now discovered one!
Oh, sure, it’s not a strange nucleotide sequence that proves the existence of extraterrestial life. Nor is it some new element from the unexplored outer reaches of the periodic table. In fact, it’s made from two of the most common elements in the universe (iron and silicon), but–and this is the point–it isn’t made on earth.
The new substance is called Hapkeite, after the scientist who first theorized the extraterrestrial process that makes it, Bruce Hapke. As it happens, Hapke is still alive and got to say a big “I told you so!” (Actually, his words to the press were “I told them so.”)
Hapkeite is made by “space weathering” on the lunar surface, a chunk of which containing Hapkeite got blasted into space as a meteor, which fell to earth and became a meteorite.
Cool!
Now if we could just come up with some naquadah.
