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https://theconversation.com/a-pristine-chunk-of-space-rock-found-within-hours-of-hitting-earth-can-tell-us-about-the-birth-of-the-solar-system-194725>
"At about 10 o'clock on the night of February 28 2021, a fireball streaked
through the sky over England. The blazing extraterrestrial visitor was seen by
more than 1,000 people, and its descent was filmed by 16 dedicated
meteor-tracking cameras from the UK Fireball Alliance and many dashboard and
doorbell cams.
With the time difference to Australia, the Global Fireball Observatory team at
Curtin University were the first to dig into their cameras’ data, quickly
realising there may be very special meteorites to find around the town of
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.
The next morning’s news told people in the area to look out for black rocks in
their garden. The Wilcock family discovered a pile of dark powder and small
rocky pieces on their driveway. They called in specialists from the Natural
History Museum who confirmed it was a meteorite and collected the space rubble
for further analysis, all within 12 hours of it landing.
More fragments were collected from the surrounding area over the next month.
All told, the samples added up to around 600 grams of exceptionally pristine
asteroid rock from the outer Solar System.
We have been studying this precious find with colleagues from around the world
for the past 18 months. As we report in a new paper in
Science Advances, it
is a very fresh sample of an ancient rock formed in the early years of the
Solar System, rich in the water and organic molecules that may have been
crucial in the origin of life on Earth."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
