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Hefty meteorite containing materials billions of years old found by researchers in Antarctica

January 30, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

Scientists say they have discovered a nearly 20 pound meteorite in Antarctica that contains some of the oldest materials in our entire solar system.

ANTARCTICA – Researchers made an out-of-this-world discovery in Antarctica’s frozen landscape when they found a nearly 20-pound meteorite that contains some of the oldest materials in our solar system lying among the snow and ice.

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The researchers with their 16.7-pound find. White helmet: Maria Schönbächler. Green helmet: Maria Valdes. Black helmet: Ryoga Maeda. Orange helmet: Vinciane Debaille.

(Chicago Field Museum)

According to the Chicago Field Museum, Antarctica’s landscape is ideal for meteorite hunting because the black space rocks stick out like a sore thumb against the snowy fields. Even when they sink into the ice, the glaciers’ churning motion against the rock below helps to re-expose the meteorites near the surface of the continent’s blue ice fields.

Recently, a team of researchers who just returned from Antarctica can confirm the continent’s meteorite-hunter friendliness as they returned with five new meteorites, including one that weighed 16.7 pounds.

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The 17-pound meteorite found in Antarctica.

(Chicago Field Museum)

“Size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly scientifically valuable,” Maria Valdes, a research scientist at the Chicago Field Museum and the University of Chicago, said in a statement. “But of course, finding a big meteorite like this one is rare and really exciting.”

Valdes estimated that of the roughly 45,000 meteorites retrieved from Antarctica over the past century, only about 100 or so are this size or larger.

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A researchers with one of the meteorites discovered in Antarctica.

(Maria Valdes/Chicago Field Museum)

Valdes was among four scientists on the meteorite-hunting mission led by Vinciane Debaille of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). The research team also included Maria Schönbächler of ETH-Zurich and Ryoga Maeda of the ULB.

They were the first to explore the potential new meteorite sites mapped using satellite images by Veronica Tollenaar, a thesis student in glaciology at the ULB.

Researchers with one of the meteorites discovered in Antarctica.

(Maria Valdes/Chicago Field Museum)

“Going on an adventure exploring unknown areas is exciting,” Debaille said. “But we also had to deal with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more difficult than the beauty of satellite images.”

The five meteorites discovered by the team will be analyzed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. In addition, the sediment potentially containing tiny micrometeorites was divided among the researchers for study at their institutions.

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Intriguing Meteorite From Mars Reveals ‘Huge Organic Diversity’, Scientists Say : ScienceAlert

January 30, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

In a recent study published in Sciences Advances, an international team of scientists led by the Technical University of Munich examined the Martian meteorite Tissint, which fell near the village of Tissint, Morocco, on 18 July 2011, with pieces of the meteorite found as far as approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the village.

What makes Tissint intriguing is the presence of a “huge organic diversity”, as noted in the study, which could help scientists better understand if life ever existed on Mars, and even the geologic history of Earth, as well.

“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, who is the director of the research unit Analytical Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich, and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

“And while life arose and thrived on our home planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Mars is a very hot research topic that requires deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules, and reactive surfaces.”

ALH 84001 meteorite. (NASA/Johnson Space Center)

Organic molecules are molecules comprised of carbon atoms that are bonded to hydrogen atoms, but can also contain oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements, as well. The four primary classes of organic molecules include carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids.

As seen on Earth, organic molecules are analogous to life, but the study notes that abiotic organic chemistry, non-biological processes, have been observed “in other Martian meteorites.”

“Understanding the processes and sequence of events that shaped this rich organic bounty will reveal new details about Mars’ habitability and potentially about the reactions that could lead to the formation of life,” Dr. Andrew Steele, who is a staff scientist at Carnegie Science, a member of the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group for NASA’s Perseverance rover, and a co-author on the study, said in a statement.

Dr. Steele has also conducted extensive research pertaining to organic material found in Martian meteorites, to include Tissint.

For the study, the researchers examined the entirety of Tissint’s organic composition, and identified a “diverse chemistry and abundance in complex molecules “, as noted in the study, while also helping to unlock the past geologic processes within the crust and mantle of the red planet.

The researchers also identified a plethora of organic magnesium compounds never before observed on Mars, which could bring new evidence about the geochemical processes that shaped Mars’ deep interior while possibly making a link between the red planet’s mineral evolution and carbon cycle.

NASA’s upcoming Mars Sample Return mission could provide even greater insights into both the organic and mineral composition of the red planet. Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today that such a mission could be just as successful as Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission since they “were able to show that meteorites reflect nicely the chemistry found in the return mission, we probably will be able to do the same.”

Tissint has a total weight of 7 kilograms (15 pounds), and is currently the fifth meteorite classified as being of Martian origin, with a 2012 study estimating it was ejected from Mars approximately 700,000 years ago from some type of violent event.

Microscopic structures within ALH 84001 fragments that were initially interpreted to be microfossils, but those findings have since been rendered inconclusive. (NASA)

Tissint draws some parallels with one of the most famous meteorites of Martian origin found on Earth, ALH 84001, which was the subject of much scrutiny in the late 1990s when it was initially believed to contain microfossils, findings that since been rendered inconclusive.

“ALH 84001 was one of the most studied Mars meteorites because it was found in Antarctica and thus was ‘conserved’ in the ice with low contamination,” Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today.

“That time looking at molecules of life in the diverse chemistry of that meteorite and seeing in addition biological-like features in microscopy led to a too rapid conclusion of having found life on Mars.”

What new secrets of Mars will Tissint, future meteorites, and the future samples returned from Mars teach us about the red planet? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

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Scientists discover monster 17-pound meteorite in Antarctica

January 29, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

A team of researchers working in Antarctica have discovered a massive meteorite, weighing in at a hefty 17 pounds. Rocks falling to Earth from space aren’t uncommon, but it’s very unusual for such a large one to be found. Studying such meteorites can help scientists learn about early conditions in the solar system and even about how planets form.

The researchers found a total of five meteorites, including the gigantic 17-pounder. Antarctica is an inhospitable place for humans but a great location for meteorite hunting, thanks to its combination of dry climate and snowy conditions, which make it easier to spot dark hunks of rocks.

The researchers with their 16.7-pound find. White helmet: Maria Schönbächler. Green helmet: Maria Valdes. Black helmet: Ryoga Maeda. Orange helmet: Vinciane Debaille. Courtesy of Maria Valdes

As the coldest place on Earth, though, Antarctica is a difficult place to work — even if it is stunning to look at. “Going on an adventure exploring unknown areas is exciting,” said lead researcher Vinciane Debaille of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels. “But we also had to deal with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more difficult than the beauty of satellite images.”

Four team members had scoured the white continent for meteorites, using satellite imagery that had been used for mapping to locate the monster find. “Size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly scientifically valuable,” said Maria Valdes of the University of Chicago, one of the researchers, in a statement. “But of course, finding a big meteorite like this one is rare, and really exciting.”

Researchers estimate that of the approximately 45,000 meteorites found in Antarctica to date, only around 100 are this big or larger. Along with the four other meteorites discovered by the team, it will now be shipped to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences for study.

Meteorites are scientifically valuable because they originate from beyond Earth, bringing a piece of the solar system to us for study. They can come from asteroids, comets, or even be pieces of other planets that have been blasted off by an impact. They can also reveal information about the early stages of the solar system because they can be extremely old and well-preserved due to their time in space.

“Studying meteorites helps us better understand our place in the universe,” said Valdes. “The bigger a sample size we have of meteorites, the better we can understand our Solar System, and the better we can understand ourselves.”

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Meteorite Hunters Discover Extraordinary 17-Pound Space Rock in Antarctica

January 25, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

The researchers with their 16.7-pound find. White helmet: Maria Schönbächler. Green helmet: Maria Valdes. Black helmet: Ryoga Maeda. Orange helmet: Vinciane Debaille. Credit: Photo courtesy of Maria Valdes

Antarctica is a tough place to work, for obvious reasons— it’s bitterly cold, remote, and wild. However, it’s one of the best places in the world to hunt for meteorites. That’s partly because Antarctica is a desert, and its dry climate limits the degree of weathering the meteorites experience. On top of the dry conditions, the landscape is ideal for meteorite hunting: the black space rocks stand out clearly against snowy fields. Even when meteorites sink into the ice, the glaciers’ churning motion against the rock below helps re-expose the meteorites near the surface of the continent’s blue ice fields.

An international team of researchers who just got back from Antarctica can attest to the continent’s meteorite-hunter-friendliness: they returned with five new meteorites, including one that weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg).

The 17-pound meteorite. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes

Maria Valdes, a research scientist at the Field Museum and the

The team’s tents when in the field. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes

Valdes was one of four scientists on the mission, led by Vinciane Debaille of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (FNRS-ULB); the research team was rounded out by Maria Schönbächler (ETH-Zurich) and Ryoga Maeda (VUB-ULB). The researchers were the first to explore potential new meteorite sites mapped using satellite imagery by Veronica Tollenaar, a thesis student in glaciology at the ULB.

Rocks strewn across an ice field, with the scientists searching for meteorites in the background. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes

“Going on an adventure exploring unknown areas is exciting,” says Debaille, “but we also had to deal with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more difficult than the beauty of satellite images.” Despite timing their trip for Antarctica’s summertime in late December, temperatures hovered around 14° F (-10° C). Valdes notes that some days during their trip, it was actually colder in Chicago than it was in Antarctica, but spending days riding snowmobiles and trekking through ice fields and then sleeping in a tent made the Antarctic weather feel more extreme.

The team hiking past rock formations in Antarctica. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes

The five meteorites recovered by the team will be analyzed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; meanwhile, sediment potentially containing tiny micrometeorites was divided among the researchers for study at their institutions.

Valdes says she’s eager to see what the analyses of the meteorites reveal, because “studying meteorites helps us better understand our place in the universe. The bigger a sample size we have of meteorites, the better we can understand our Solar System, and the better we can understand ourselves.”

A snowy field in Antarctica. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes

The team was guided by Manu Poudelet of the International Polar Guide Association and assisted by Alain Hubert. They were supported in part by the Belgian Science Policy. Valdes’s work is supported by the Field Museum’s Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, the TAWANI Foundation, and the Meeker family.

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17-pound meteorite in Antarctica discovered by scientists

January 24, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

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During a recent excursion to the icy plains of Antarctica, an international team of researchers discovered five new meteorites — including one of the largest ever found on the continent.

The rare meteorite is about the size of a cantaloupe but weighs a hefty 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms). The specimen is one of only about 100 that size or larger discovered in Antarctica, a prime meteroite-hunting location where more than 45,000 space rocks have been tracked down.

Now, the exceptional find is heading to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, where it will be studied. And Maria Valdes, a research scientist at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago who was part of the expedition team, has kept some of the material for her own analysis.

Valdes’ area of focus is cosmochemistry. That “broadly means that we use meteorites to study the origin and evolution of the solar system through chemical methods,” she told CNN. She’ll take her samples and use strong acids to dissolve them before using a process called calibrated chemistry to isolate various elements that make up the rock.

“Then I can start to think about the origin of this rock, how it evolved over time, what kind of parent body it came from, and where in the solar system that parent body formed,” Valdes said. “Those are kind of the big questions that we try to address.”

Meteorites strike Earth evenly across its surface, so Antarctica is not home to a disproportionately large concentration of them, Valdes noted. But the pure white ice is an ideal backdrop for spotting the jet black rocks.

Hunting for meteroids is “really low tech and less complicated than people might think,” Valdes said. “We’re either walking around or driving on a snowmobile, looking on the surface.”

But the team did have an idea of where to look. A January 2022 study used satellite data to help narrow down locations where meteorites were most likely to be found.

“Meteorites themselves are too small to detect from space with satellites,” Valdes explained. “But this study used satellite measurements of surface temperature, surface slope, surface velocity, ice thickness — things like this. And it plugged (the data) into a machine learning algorithm to tell us where the highest probabilities of finding meteorite accumulation zones are.”

Distinguishing a meteorite from other rocks can be a tricky process, Valdes said. Researchers look for fusion crust, a glassy coating that forms as the cosmic object plummets through the Earth’s atmosphere.

“A lot of rocks can seem like they’re meteorites, but they’re not,” she said. “We call these meteor-wrongs.”

Another distinguishing characteristic is the potential specimen’s weight. A meteorite will be much heavier for its size than a typical Earth rock because it’s packed with dense metals.

The conditions the researchers endured were grueling. Though Valdes and three other scientists carried out their mission during the continent’s “summer,” which offered 24 hours of daylight, temperatures still hovered around 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius), according to a news release from the Field Museum.

The research team spent about a week and a half with a polar field guide, living in tents pitched on the icy terrain. However, Valdes said she and her colleagues also spent time at a Belgian research station near Antarctica’s coast, where they enjoyed warm, cheesy foods, such as fondue.

When it comes to future research, the good news, Valdes added, is that the five meteorites she and her colleagues discovered on this expedition are just the tip of the iceberg.

“I’m eager to go back there, for sure,” she said. “Based on the satellite study, there are 300,000 meteorites, at least, waiting to still be collected in Antarctica. And the larger the (number of) samples that we have, the better we can understand our solar system.”

The excursion was led by Vinciane Debaille, a professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels. She and Valdes were joined by Maria Schönbächler, a professor at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich, and doctoral student Ryoga Maeda of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

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Scientists find 17-pound meteorite in icy Antarctica

January 21, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

A daring team of scientists has endured the inhospitable conditions of the icy desert of Antarctica to recover five new meteorites, including a near-17-pound monster space rock.

The team of scientists included Field Museum and the University of Chicago researcher Maria Valdes, who estimated that of the 45,000 meteorites recovered to date from the icy wasteland of Antarctica, only 100 or so have been as large as the largest member of this new haul, which weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kilograms).

“Size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly scientifically valuable, but of course, finding a big meteorite like this one is rare and really exciting,” Valdes said in a statement.

Related: How many meteorites hit Earth every year?

The team, which was led by Vinciane Debaille, a planetary scientist at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (FNRS-ULB) in Belgium, was the first to explore new potential meteor sites that had been mapped using satellite imagery.

“Going on an adventure exploring unknown areas is exciting, but we also had to deal with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more difficult than the beauty of satellite images,” Debaille said in the statement.

The team planned their excursion for Antarctica’s summer, in late December, but temperatures in the region still hovered at around 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees degrees Celsius). Valdes said that at some points during the mission, Antarctica was actually warmer than Chicago, but the weather felt more extreme to the team because of days spent riding snowmobiles and trekking through ice fields and nights spent sleeping in tents.

With such frigid conditions even in the midst of summer, Antarctica may seem like an unlikely place for anyone to choose to visit, yet for meteorite hunters like this team, this frigid vista offers unique opportunities. That’s because Antarctica is one of the best spots across the globe to hunt for meteorites.

The snowy landscape of Antarctica where five meteorites, including a rare 17-pound monster, were recovered. (Image credit: Courtesy of Maria Valdes)

Antarctica is a desert with a dry climate, which reduces the amount of weathering experienced by meteorites. Also, across the white snowy landscape, the black hue of these space rocks stands out when they are at the surface of the region.

Conditions in Antarctica are even favorable for the discovery of meteorites that may have sunk beneath the snow and ice. This is because the churning motion of glaciers moving against rock can re-expose meteorites near the surface.

Though there is no denying the largest meteorite recovered by the team is a whopper, it’s far from the largest or most massive example of such a space rock to reach Earth’s surface. That record is held by the Hoba meteorite in Namibia. Hoba is 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, 9 feet wide and 3 feet (0.9 meters) thick and weighs around 66 tons, or 132,000 pounds (60,000 kg). That’s almost 7,765 times heavier than the newly discovered Antarctic meteorite.

The whopping new space rock and the other meteorites recovered by the researchers will now be analyzed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, while the team members will individually divide and study samples of sediments they collected from Antarctica.

Valdes is excited to learn what secrets the meteorites hold. “Studying meteorites helps us better understand our place in the universe,” she said. “The bigger a sample size we have of meteorites, the better we can understand our solar system, and the better we can understand ourselves.”

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Meteorite Made of Earth’s Oldest Material Found in Antarctica

January 21, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

The cold continent of Antarctica holds relics of our planet’s past — from clues of major climate events to zombie viruses buried beneath its frozen exterior. Apart from being a repository of invaluable information about Earth, however, it also houses foreign visitors from the universe, including meteorites!

The home of the south pole is a perfect place for meteorite hunting, thanks to all the ice and snow! The white backdrop makes the dark-coloured meteorites easier to spot, and the dry, desert-ish climate keeps the weathering in check. And if those space rocks sink beneath the ice, they eventually get coughed out by glacial churning.

In spite of these positives, finding sizable chunks of space rocks in Antarctica is incredibly rare. Nevertheless, a study team that left for an Antarctic meteorite hunt in December 2022 has managed to return with some interesting finds.

During the month-long mission on meteorite exploration around the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Station, the team of scientists uncovered five new meteorites, one of which is a monster space rock weighing a whopping 7.6 kgs!

“At the moment, it looks like an ordinary chondrite. This type of meteorite came from the asteroid belt and ended its travel in the Antarctic blue ice, waiting several tens of thousands of years in the ice before discovery,” explains Professor Maria Schoenbaechler from the department of earth sciences at ETH-Zurich in Switzerland and a study team member.

Antarctica’s Blue Ice Field is an area with winds so strong, they can literally blow away layers of snow atop glaciers.

Around 45,000 meteorites have been retrieved from Antarctica over the past century, and this new find is easily among the top 100 meteorites (in terms of size) recovered from the continent, as per the Chicago Field Museum.

So, what does this exceptional find mean for research in Earth sciences?

According to Professor Maria Schoenbaechler, the meteorite belongs to the oldest material that can be found on Earth, which makes it similar to a building block of our planet. Therefore, it could play a vital role in helping humanity study the formation of its own world.

But this is not all. Before venturing out into Antarctica’s tricky terrain, the research team mapped the area using satellite imagery — covering aspects such as ice flow, temperature, and surface slope measurements — to pinpoint sites with a higher possibility of new meteorites with the help of artificial intelligence.

And this satellite map, thought to be around 80% accurate in giving directions, suggests more than 300,000 meteorites are still out there in Antarctica, just waiting to be found!

These predictions may well renew humanity’s aspirations of making more such discoveries, which could help us trace our solar system’s history and ultimately expand our understanding of the universe.

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Meteorite Hunters Find 17-Pound Space Rock in Antarctica

January 18, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

The 16.7 pound (7.6 kilogram) meteorite was found sitting on the surface of the Antarctic desert, where its black composition contrasted against the snow.

Image: Maria Valdes

Researchers combing the surface of Antarctica for space rocks hit the jackpot by finding five meteorites in the tundra, one of which weighs almost 17 pounds.

The expedition team found the meteorites sitting on top of the snow in Antarctica, where the rocks’ black bodies stuck out against the white snow fields of the continent. Antarctica is an ideal place to find relatively undisturbed space rocks, since its dry climate prevents excess weathering over time. Maria Valdes, a research scientist with the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, and her team found a total of five meteorites during their hunt in December, one of which weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kilograms).

“Size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly scientifically valuable,” said Valdes in a statement. “But of course, finding a big meteorite like this one is rare, and really exciting.”

Researchers Maria Schönbächler, Maria Valdes, Ryoga Maeda, and Vinciane Debaille pose with the largest of the meteorites.

Image: Maria Valdes

Valdes estimates that, out of the tens of thousands of meteorites that have been found in Antarctica, only around 100 are as large as the one her team found. To find the meteorites, the researchers rode on snow mobiles and walked in areas that were previously mapped and identified through satellite imagery as potential landing spots for meteorites. When the team found a suspected meteorite, they used a handheld tool to test the magnetic properties of the rock, Valdes explained in an email to Gizmodo. While most of these meteorites stay on the surface, even those that sink into the ice will reemerge as glaciers shift and move.

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“Going on an adventure exploring unknown areas is exciting,” said Vinciane Debaille, a member of the research team from Université Libre de Bruxelles, in a statement. “But we also had to deal with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more difficult than the beauty of satellite images.”

While the find is exciting, the next step for the scientists is to determine what the meteorites can tell us about the universe. The five rocks Valdes and her team found with be analyzed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, while soil samples from the area will be analyzed by the team themselves.

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UK Meteorite That Fell To Earth Contains Building Blocks For Life

January 12, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

The importance of the UK’s first meteorite in 30 years, collected after being seen falling, has been confirmed with the discovery of amino acids – organic compounds essential for life on Earth. The concentration of amino acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is not as high as in some other asteroid remnants (just 1.1 and 6.2 parts per million respectively), but that may make the discovery even more interesting.

The Winchcombe meteorite not only contains organic materials but also appears to represent a new class of meteorites, a new paper reports. Some of the materials in it were altered in ways that suggest at least three short outbursts of liquid water on the asteroid body from which it came.

Meteorites don’t make it to ground without creating a spectacular sky show, at least at night. Thanks to the rise of personal cameras and fireball tracking networks we are now increasingly able to determine objects’ flightpaths, using this to calculate the orbits of asteroids where meteorites come from. When a meteorite’s composition and its former orbit can be matched together, it greatly enhances the potential contribution to understanding solar system evolution. Detail from the UK fireball network made Winchcombe one of the first 40 meteorites whose origins within the asteroid belt could be traced.

Almost immediately, it was clear this was an important find; within two weeks the likely presence of water-bearing minerals was reported. As a carbonaceous chondrite, which make up only 4 percent of meteorites and may have seeded life on Earth, Winchcombe stood out.

“Studying the organic inventory of the Winchcombe meteorite provided us with a window into the past, how simple chemistry kick started the origin of life at the birth of our solar system,” said Dr Queenie Chan of the Royal Holloway University of London in a statement. “Discovering these life’s precursor organic molecules allowed us to comprehend the fall of similar material to the surface of the Earth, prior to the emergence of life on our own planet.”

The fact the first of four surviving pieces was collected within 12 hours of landing, allowing little time for contamination, added to the meteorite’s value. Indeed, because the abundance of organic material in the meteorite was ten times lower than in other carbonaceous chondrites, they might not have been distinguishable from Earthly contamination had it not been retrieved so quickly. As it is, some of the amino acids found are quite rare on Earth, confirming their extraterrestrial origins.

The Winchcombe stones had a number of features never previously seen in meteorites, including low amino acid abundance for a carbonaceous chondrite but unusual ratios among the amino acids and PAHs that are present. Combined with the incomplete conversion of Winchcombe’s components into solid rock, this led the authors to speculate Winchcombe could represent a new class of meteorite that has not been studied before.

Perhaps in part because of its weak structure, very little of the Winchcombe meteorite made it to the ground. Just 600 grams (1.3 pounds) have been recovered, compared to a 27-kilogram (60-pound) carbonaceous chondrite that landed in Costa Rica in 2019. This prevented certain forms of analysis that require bulk samples.

As with most asteroids, it is thought Winchcombe was originally part of a large asteroid, and the piece that hit the Earth’s atmosphere was knocked off in a collision before wandering in space for a long time.

The paper is published open access in Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

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Building blocks of life found in meteorite that crash landed in Gloucestershire

January 10, 2023 Admin Leave a comment

Credit: Royal Holloway, University of London

New research has been published on the organic analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite that crash landed onto a driveway in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire in 2021. The research, led by Dr. Queenie Chan, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, found organic compounds from space that hold the secrets to the origin of life.

In the study, the analysis found a range of organic matter, which reveals that the meteorite was once from part of an asteroid where liquid water occurred, and if it that asteroid had been given access to the water, a chemical reaction could have occurred leading to more molecules turning into amino acids and protein—the building blocks of life.

The Winchcombe meteorite is a rare carbon rich chondritic meteorite (approximately 4% of all recovered meteorites, containing up to 3.5 weight percent of carbon) and is the first ever meteorite of this type to be found in the U.K. with an observed meteorite fall event, with more than 1,000 eyewitnesses and numerous footages of the fireball.

The amino acid abundance of Winchcombe is ten times lower than other types of carbonaceous chondritic meteorites and was a challenge to study due to the limited detection of amino acids, but with the meteorite so promptly recovered and curated, the team were able to study the organic content of the meteorite prior to its interaction with the Earth’s environment. The organic matter suggests the meteorite could represent a class of unique, weak meteorite not previously studied.

Dr. Queenie Chan, at Royal Holloway, University of London, said, “Meteorite fall happens all year round, however, what makes this meteorite fall so unique is that this is the first meteorite to have been observed by numerous eyewitnesses, recorded, and recovered in the U.K. in the last 30 years.

“Winchcombe belongs to a rare type of carbonaceous meteorite which typically contains a rich inventory of organic compounds and water. The first Winchcombe meteorite stone was recovered within 12 hours of the fireball observation event and properly curated to restrict any terrestrial contamination. This allowed us to study the organic signature truly essential to the meteorite itself.

“Studying the organic inventory of the Winchcombe meteorite provided us with a window into the past, how simple chemistry kick started the origin of life at the birth of our solar system. Discovering these life’s precursor organic molecules allowed us to comprehend the fall of similar material to the surface of the Earth, prior to the emergence of life on our own planet.

“It was an honor to be leading the team on the organic analysis of the first ever successful carbonaceous meteorite recovery in the United Kingdom. It was a pleasure and an exciting journey to be working with highly skilled and enthusiastic scientists across the country.”

The paper is published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science. The wider research of the organic analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite in this study involved collaborations with Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow.

More information:
Queenie H. S. Chan et al, The amino acid and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compositions of the promptly recovered CM2 Winchcombe carbonaceous chondrite, Meteoritics & Planetary Science (2023). DOI: 10.1111/maps.13936

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Royal Holloway, University of London

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Scientists find 17-pound meteorite in icy Antarctica

Meteorite Made of Earth’s Oldest Material Found in Antarctica

Meteorite Hunters Find 17-Pound Space Rock in Antarctica

UK Meteorite That Fell To Earth Contains Building Blocks For Life

Building blocks of life found in meteorite that crash landed in Gloucestershire

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