<
https://theconversation.com/australian-bush-glass-bears-the-fingerprints-of-a-cosmic-collision-with-an-iron-meteorite-226317>
"How Earth and the other planets of the solar system formed and evolved over
the aeons is a hot question for planetary scientists like me. One of the best
ways to find out is by looking at rocks from space.
Getting the rocks is the hard part. Sending spacecraft to asteroids or other
planets to gather samples and bring them home is possible, but extremely
difficult and expensive.
Another option is to study space rocks that fall to Earth: meteorites. However,
they are relatively rare, and the journey through our planet’s atmosphere
followed by a high-speed collision with the ground often means they’re not in
very good condition by the time we get a look at them.
That said, meteorites do leave fascinating traces. In a new study, my
colleagues and I analysed lumps of glass found around a 5,000-year-old
meteorite impact site in the Northern Territory and discovered it contains a
surprisingly large amount of metal from the meteorite itself – proving the
craters at the site were formed by a cosmic interloper and giving clues about
the intruder’s composition."
Cheers,
*** 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
