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A 15-metric ton meteorite crashed in Africa. Now 2 new minerals have been found in it

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CNN — Scientists have identified two minerals never before seen on Earth in a meteorite weighing 15.2 metric tons (33,510 pounds).

The minerals came from a 70-gram (nearly 2.5-ounce) slice of the meteorite, which was discovered in Somalia in 2020 and is the ninth-largest meteorite ever found, according to a news release from the University of Alberta.

Chris Herd, curator of the university’s meteorite collection, received samples of the space rock so he could classify it. As he was examining it, something unusual caught his eye — some parts of the sample weren’t identifiable by a microscope. He then sought advice from Andrew Locock, head of the university’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory, since Locock has experience describing new minerals.

“The very first day he did some analyses, he said, ‘You’ve got at least two new minerals in there,'” Herd, a professor in the university’s department of Earth and atmospheric sciences, said in a statement. “That was phenomenal. Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral.”

One mineral’s name — elaliite — derives from the space object itself, which is called the “El Ali” meteorite since it was found near the town of El Ali in central Somalia.

Herd named the second one elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative. Elkins-Tanton is also a regents professor in that university’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming Psyche mission — a journey to a metal-rich asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, according to the space agency.

“Lindy has done a lot of work on how the cores of planets form, how these iron nickel cores form, and the closest analogue we have are iron meteorites,” Herd said. “It made sense to name a mineral after her and recognize her contributions to science.”

The International Mineralogical Association’s approval of the two new minerals in November of this year “indicates that the work is robust,” said Oliver Tschauner, a mineralogist and professor of research in the department of geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” Herd said. “That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”

The role of lab-created minerals in discovery

Locock’s quick identification was possible because similar minerals had been synthetically created before, and he was able to match the composition of the newly discovered minerals with their human-made counterparts, according to the University of Alberta release.

“Material scientists do this all the time,” said Alan Rubin, a meteorite researcher and former adjunct professor and research geochemist in the department of earth, planetary and space sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. “They can create new compounds — one, just to see what’s physically possible just as a research interest, and others … will say, ‘We’re seeking a compound that has certain properties for some practical or commercial application, like conductivity or high strain or high melting temperature.

“It’s just fortuitous that a researcher will find a mineral in a meteorite or a terrestrial rock that hasn’t been known before, and then very often, that same compound will have been created previously by material scientists.”

Both new minerals are phosphates of iron, Tschauner said. A phosphate is a salt or ester of a phosphoric acid.

“Phosphates in iron meteorites are secondary products: They form through oxidation of phosphides … which are rare primary components of iron meteorites,” he said via email. “Hence, the two new phosphates tell us about oxidation processes that occurred in the meteorite material. It remains to be seen if the oxidation occurred in space or on Earth, after the fall, but as far as I know, many of these meteorite phosphates formed in space. In either case, water is probably the reactant that caused the oxidation.”

The findings were presented in November at the University of Alberta’s Space Exploration Symposium. The revelations “broaden our perspective on the natural materials that can be found and can be formed in the solar system,” Rubin said.

The El Ali meteorite the minerals came from appears to have been sent to China in search of a buyer, Herd said.

Meanwhile, the researchers are still analyzing the minerals — and potentially a third one — to find out what the conditions were in the meteorite when the space rock formed. And newly discovered minerals could have exciting implications for the future, he added.

“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society,” Herd said.

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The Stunning Discovery Made Inside A Meteorite In Somalia

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If you’ve ever seen a shooting star, you’ve witnessed a meteor speeding across the sky. If that object makes its way to the ground, it’s called a meteorite, and according to Space.com, only three types of meteorites have been identified: metallic, stony, and stony-metallic. Most meteorites are irregular in shape, and they are magnetic because they contain some amount of iron, per the United States Geological Survey (USGS). 




© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
meteorite in tray

National Geographic reports other compounds found in meteorites can include carbon, clay, silicates, oxygen, and amino acids. Some even contain materials that appear to be linked to the presence of water, like one meteorite that fell to our planet in 2021. It contained water that scientists think can help us understand how the Earth was formed, per Live Science. In 2020, a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite, older than the Earth itself, was found in the Sahara Desert. And while those are fascinating enough, another meteorite discovered in Somalia contains two compounds not naturally found on the Earth, according to the University of Alberta.

The Meteorite Sat In One Place For Years






© Marina Kryuchina/Shutterstock
meteorite on ground

No one knows exactly when the meteorite fell to the Earth, but it was known to locals as “Nightfall” and celebrated in folklore and songs for over a century. It wasn’t until 2019 that opal prospectors noticed the strange rock and sent samples to Chris Herd, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection. Herd and his colleagues at the university identified the new minerals and announced their findings in 2022. Named “El Ali” after the town near which it was found, the meteorite is huge, weighing in at just over 15 tons, reports Science Alert.

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El Ali is classified as an iron IAB meteorite, and Herd and other experts examining the 70-gram sample soon discovered that it contained unearthly compounds, later dubbed elaliite and elkinstantonite. Elaliite is named after the meteorite, and elkinstantonite gets its name from Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative. Scientists were able to identify the compounds as quickly as they did because human-made synthetic versions of them had already been created. Evidence leads experts to suspect that the meteorite might even contain a third, as-yet-unidentified substance.

El Ali Was Moved From Somalia






© Mahod84/Shutterstock
pieces of meteorite on table

El Ali isn’t the only IAB meteorite, but it is the only one to contain elkinstantonite and elaliite, which is exciting because that represents an intriguing aspect of its history. “Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” Chris Herd explains. He says that while it’s his job to gain a better understanding of how meteorites form, he never thought he’d be involved in the discovery of new minerals just by studying one.

Additional discoveries regarding El Ali might be put on hold because the original “Nightfall” rock from which Herd’s sample came was reportedly seized by the Somalian government. No one knows exactly what happened to the meteorite after that, but speculation is that it was moved to China, where brokers might have chopped it up into smaller pieces and sold them, according to Science Alert.

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Scientists Find Two Completely New Minerals On Meteorite

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By ZeroHedge – Dec 01, 2022, 12:00 PM CST

  • Univeristy of Alberta researchers have discovered two completely new minerals that have never been found on earth. 
  • The two minerals named elkinstantonite and elaliite were found on a meteor in east Africa.
  • Western researchers called the space rock “El Ali” because it was discovered near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia.

A team of researchers from the University of Alberta discovered at least two new minerals never before seen on Earth in a 15-ton meteorite that landed in east Africa.

Unearthed in Somalia in 2020, the meteorite is the ninth largest ever found. When researchers sliced off a two-ounce section of the space rock, they found two new minerals named “elaliite” and “elkinstantonite.” Details about the minerals remain limited. 

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before.

“That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science,” Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection, said in a press release. 

Western researchers called the space rock “El Ali” because it was discovered near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia. 

Herd said the two new minerals were discovered on the first day the sample was analyzed. He said, “most of the time, it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral.” 

Similar minerals had been synthetically created in a lab by French researchers in the 1980s but never found in nature. 

Herd also said these new mineral discoveries could one day benefit humanity: 

“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”

Reports show the space rock has been shipped to China as meteorites are often bought and sold on international markets. 

By Zerohedge.com

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Science

Massive Meteorite Hid Two Minerals Never Before Seen on Earth

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A giant meteorite discovered in Somalia turned out to be full of surprises. The El Ali meteorite is named for its landing location near the town of El Ali. It weighs 16.5 tons (15 tonnes) and is one of the largest meteorites ever found. Scientists researching its composition discovered it was hiding two new minerals never before seen on Earth.

A research team at the University of Alberta in Canada discovered the minerals while examining a small 2.5-ounce (70 gram) slice of the space rock. The new minerals are named elaliite (for the meteorite’s nearby town) and elkinstantonite in honor of Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the principal investigator for NASA’s upcoming Psyche asteroid mission.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” said geologist Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection, in a statement on Monday. “That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.” 

Herd brought in mineralogist Andew Locock to help analyze the meteorite, which has now been classified as a type of iron meteorite. Locock quickly identified the new minerals by comparing them with similar minerals researchers had synthetically created in lab settings. 

“That was phenomenal,” Herd said. “Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral.” 

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Herd presented the team’s findings at the Space Exploration Symposium at the university earlier this month. The next step in the research will be to see what the minerals can tell the scientists about the formation of the meteorite.

While the El Ali meteorite has only recently come to the attention of the science community, it was reportedly known to locals in Somalia who traced its origin back by at least five generations. Only a small part of the meteorite has been extracted for study. According to Herd, the research team heard the main meteorite was moved to China, where it may be up for sale.

Scientists still hope to get their hands on more of the meteorite. They have already identified a possible third new mineral, and there could be more surprises hiding out in the fallen space rock. The new minerals could be of interest beyond geology and astronomy. “Whenever there’s a new material that’s known,” Herd said, “material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”

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Two Minerals – Never Before Seen on Earth – Discovered in Massive Meteorite

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A slice of the El Ali meteorite, now housed in the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection, contains two minerals never before seen on Earth. Credit: University of Alberta

New minerals discovered in massive meteorite may reveal clues to asteroid formation.

At least two new minerals that have never before been seen on Earth have been discovered by a team of researchers in a 33,000-pound (15,000-kg) meteorite found in Somalia in 2020. This giant meteorite is the ninth largest ever found.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” says Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection. “That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”

A single 70-gram slice of the meteorite was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, where the two minerals were discovered. There already appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration. Herd notes that if researchers were to obtain more samples from the massive meteorite, there’s a chance that even more minerals might be found.

The two newly discovered minerals have been named elaliite and elkinstantonite. The first name, elaliite, comes from the meteorite itself, which is officially called the “El Ali” meteorite because it was found near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia. Herd named the second mineral elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of the ASU Interplanetary Initiative, professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, and principal investigator of

A slice of the El Ali meteorite contains two minerals never before seen on Earth. Credit: University of Alberta

“Lindy has done a lot of work on how the cores of planets form, how these iron-nickel cores form, and the closest analogue we have are iron meteorites. So it made sense to name a mineral after her and recognize her contributions to science,” Herd explains.

In collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Herd classified the El Ali meteorite as an “Iron, IAB complex” meteorite, one of over 350 in that particular category.

As Herd was analyzing the meteorite to classify it, he saw something that caught his attention. He brought in the expertise of Andrew Locock, head of the University of Alberta’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory, who has been involved in other new mineral descriptions including Heamanite-(Ce).

“The very first day he did some analyses, he said, ‘You’ve got at least two new minerals in there,’” says Herd. “That was phenomenal. Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral.”

Locock’s rapid identification was possible because the two minerals had been synthetically created before, so he was able to match the composition of the newly discovered natural minerals with their human-made counterparts.

Scientists are still examining the minerals in detail to determine what they can tell us about the conditions in the meteorite when it formed.

“That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of,” says Herd. “I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”

Herd also notes that any new mineral discoveries could possibly yield exciting new uses down the line.

“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”

While the future of the meteorite remains uncertain, Herd says the researchers have received news that it appears to have been moved to China in search of a potential buyer. It remains to be seen whether additional samples will be available for scientific purposes.

Herd described the findings at the Space Exploration Symposium on November 21 at the University of Alberta’s ETLC Solarium.



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Two minerals never before been seen on Earth found inside 17-ton meteorite

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Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered inside a massive meteorite in Somalia. They could hold important clues to how asteroids form.

The two brand new minerals were found inside a single 2.5 ounce (70 gram) slice taken from the 16.5 ton (15 metric tons) El Ali meteorite, which crashed to Earth in 2020. Scientists named the minerals elaliite after the meteor and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton (opens in new tab), the managing director of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative and principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming Psyche mission, which will send a probe to investigate the mineral-rich Psyche asteroid for evidence of how our solar system‘s planets formed.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” Chris Herd (opens in new tab), a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, said in a statement (opens in new tab). “That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.” 

Related: Miners just discovered the largest pink diamond in more than 300 years

The researchers classified El Ali as an Iron IAB complex meteorite, a type made of meteoric iron flecked with tiny chunks of silicates. While investigating the meteorite slice, details of the new minerals caught the scientists’ attention. By comparing the minerals with versions of them that had been previously synthesized in a lab, they were able to rapidly identify them as newly recorded in nature. 

The researchers plan to investigate the meteorites further in order to understand the conditions under which their parent asteroid formed. “That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of,” Herd said. “I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”

The team is also looking into material science applications of the minerals.

However, future scientific insights from the El Ali meteorite could be in peril. The meteorite has now been moved to China in search of a potential buyer, which could limit researchers’ access to the space rock for investigation.

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4.6 billion-year-old meteorite may reveal the origin of Earth’s water

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An ancient meteorite that crash-landed on a U.K. driveway may have solved the mystery of where Earth’s water came from.

The 4.6 billion-year-old space rock, which landed in front of a family home in the English town of Winchcombe in February 2021, contains water that closely resembles the chemical composition of water found on Earth — presenting a possible explanation for how our planet was seeded with the life-giving substance.   

When the rocky inner planets of the young solar system first coalesced — clotting from the hot clouds of gas and dust billowing near the sun — they were too close to our star for oceans to form. In fact, past a certain point called the frost line, no ice could escape evaporation, making the young Earth a barren and inhospitable landscape. Scientists think this changed after Earth cooled, when a barrage of icy asteroids from the outer solar system brought frozen water to our planet to melt. Now, a new analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite, published Nov. 16 in the journal Science Advances, has lent weight to this theory.

Related: Giant reservoir of ‘hidden water’ discovered on Mars

“One of the biggest questions asked of the scientific community is, how did we get here?” study co-author Luke Daly, a lecturer in planetary geoscience at the University of Glasgow, said in a statement. “This analysis on the Winchcombe meteorite gives insight into how the Earth came to have water — the source of so much life. Researchers will continue to work on this specimen for years to come, unlocking more secrets into the origins of our solar system.”

The space rock, a rare carbon-rich type called a carbonaceous chondrite, was collected just a few hours after it smashed into the ground and so remains largely uncontaminated, making it “one of the most pristine meteorites available for analysis”; it offers “a tantalising glimpse back through time to the original composition of the solar system,” said lead author Ashley King, a research fellow at the Natural History Museum in London.

To analyze the minerals and elements inside the rock, the researchers polished, heated and bombarded it with X-rays and lasers, revealing that it had come from an asteroid in orbit around Jupiter and that 11% of the meteorite’s mass was water.

The hydrogen in the asteroid’s water came in two forms — normal hydrogen and the hydrogen isotope known as deuterium, which goes to make up “heavy water”. The scientists found that the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium matched the ratio found in water on Earth, strongly implying that the meteorite’s water and our planet’s water shared a point of origin. Amino acids, the building blocks for proteins and subsequent life, were also found inside the rock.

To expand on this research, scientists may analyze other space rocks floating around the solar system, such as the asteroid Ryugu, which has also been found to contain the building blocks of life. A comprehensive survey of the solar system’s space rocks could give scientists even better insight into which rocks helped to seed early Earth, and where they came from.

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Meteorite that landed in English village last year is most pristine ever seen

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A meteorite that lit up the sky above an English village last year is almost as pristine as samples collected by space probes and contains the “right” kind of hydrogen to explain water on Earth, scientists say.

A huge furor erupted when a fireball rattled through the evening sky above southwestern England on Feb. 28, 2021. Dozens of meteor cameras and doorbell webcams caught a glimpse of the bright streak, and a 1-pound (0.5 kilograms) fragment of the space rock was promptly found in the driveway of a home in the village of Winchcombe, after which the meteorite was later named. 

The speedy discovery meant the meteorite was barely exposed to Earth’s elements, allowing it to maintain its pristine chemical composition. In fact, the Winchcombe meteorite’s composition is so pristine it can nearly match samples collected by space probes such as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx from asteroids in space, researchers said in a new study.

Related: How scientists found rare fireball meteorite pieces on a driveway — and what they could teach us

The analysis of this precious rock has yielded fascinating results that seem to support the theory that Earth‘s water came primarily from asteroids. The Winchcombe space rock contains hydrogen atoms with an isotopic composition that is quite similar to that in Earth’s water. Isotopes are varieties of the same chemical elements that differ by the number of neutrons in their atomic nuclei. Other possible sources of Earth’s water, such as comets, have been found to contain water with different isotopic profiles. 

The analysis also found that the meteorite must have broken off from its parent asteroid fairly recently in the cosmic scheme of things — only 200,000 to 300,000 years ago. Most meteorites, scientists said in the paper, spend millions of years in interplanetary space before their paths cross with that of Earth, and during that time they get ravaged by cosmic rays and solar wind.

By analyzing data from the cameras that captured the Winchcombe meteorite’s cruise through Earth’s atmosphere, astronomers were able to reconstruct the rock’s orbit and determine that its parent asteroid resides in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter rather than among the near-Earth asteroid population. 

The Winchcombe meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite, a rare class of meteorites that is believed to come from very primitive asteroids that migrated to the main asteroid belt from the outer edges of the solar system. Scientists think that the chemical composition of these asteroids has barely changed since the solar system’s birth. And that means that, thanks to its unspoiled nature, the Winchcombe meteorite provides a unique view into these ancient “time capsules”.

In addition to the right types of hydrogen, the meteorite also contains organic material of the kind that could have given rise to life on Earth some 3.5 billion years ago, the scientists said in a statement (opens in new tab). 

Overall, the Winchcombe meteorite was a very lucky strike. 

“Direct links between carbonaceous chondrites and their parent bodies in the solar system are rare,” the scientists said in the paper. “The Winchcombe meteorite is the most accurately recorded carbonaceous chondrite fall.”

Only four carbonaceous chondrites’ journeys through Earth’s atmosphere have been observed to date so well that their origins could be determined. Most of the others discovered “are fortuitous finds that lack information about their source region in the solar system,” the researchers said in the paper.

The study (opens in new tab) describing the first analysis of this precious rock was published on Nov. 16 in the journal Science Advances.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 



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Where did Earth’s water come from? This meteorite might hold the answer

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London
CNN
 — 

If you’ve ever wondered where water on Earth comes from, new research on a meteorite which landed in a family’s front yard in England last year may have just the answer.

Researchers from London’s Natural History Museum and the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, studied a meteorite found in the town of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, to discover it contained water similar to that found on Earth.

“It’s a crystal clear window into our early solar system,” Luke Daly, co-author of the study and a lecturer in planetary geoscience at the University of Glasgow, told CNN Thursday.

Published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, the study reveals that extraterrestrial rocks may have brought vital chemical components – such as water – to our planet billions of years ago, establishing the oceans and all life on Earth.

Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, with oceans holding about 96.5% of all water, according to the US Geological Survey.

Imaging and chemical analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite – as it has become known – revealed it contains around 11% water and 2% carbon by weight, making it the first of its kind found in the UK.

The team, which measured the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in the water, found that it closely resembled the composition of water on Earth, according to a press release from the Natural History Museum.

Extracts from the rock also found extraterrestrial amino acids, making it the strongest evidence that water and organic material were delivered to the planet by asteroids like the one Winchcombe broke away from.

The meteorite was identified as a CM carbonaceous chondrite, a type of stony meteorite that contains a high composition of components that predate the solar system.

Recovered within 12 hours of its landing with the aid of the UK Fireball Alliance, an organization which aims to recover freshly-fallen meteorites in the UK, it had very little time to be altered by the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We know (this means) everything inside it is 100% extraterrestrial including the 11% water it contains,” Daly said.

“Most CM chondrites have ‘Earth-like’ water but these rocks alter and degrade within days (or) weeks of being on Earth, and so they could just be Earth-like because they have absorbed rain water or something,” he explained.

Natasha Almeida, curator of meteorites at the Natural History Museum and study co-author, said in a statement Wednesday the “incredibly fresh specimen will remain one of the most pristine meteorites in collections worldwide.”

Daly called the Winchcombe meteorite a “lucky” find. It was only the size of a basketball, so if it was traveling at a different speed or at a different angle, it would have all burnt up, he said, adding that it was a great collaboration of the UK cosmochemistry network who “came together to throw the kitchen sink at studying this rock.”

While this paper is the first of many publications that are in the works on the meteorite, Daly said it will keep them busy for years to come. “There are certainly many more stories and secrets held in this special stone,” he added.

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Meteorite that landed in Cotswolds may solve mystery of Earth’s water | Space

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Water covers three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and was crucial for the emergence of life, but its origins have remained a subject of active debate among scientists.

Now, a 4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system.

The Winchcombe meteorite, one of the “most pristine” available for analysis, offered scientists “a tantalising glimpse back through time to the original composition of the solar system 4.6bn years-ago”, said Dr Ashley King, a research fellow at the Natural History Museum in London and author of a new paper on the space rock.

A prevailing theory is that the Earth was barren when it formed, as the inner region of the solar system was too hot for water to condense. The boundary of the region where ice could form in the early solar system is known as the frost line, and is located in the modern asteroid belt. Scientists think that water could have arrived to Earth later, raining down in icy meteoroids and large impacts.

However, there are competing theories, including that water was brought on comets – made mostly of ice and dust – or other similar bodies.

The latest analysis adds weight to the theory that asteroids made a leading contribution to water on Earth. Most of the Winchcombe meteorite was recovered just hours after its spectacular fireball lit up the skies over the UK in February 2021 during lockdown. One of the largest pieces was discovered on the driveway of the Wilcock family home, and a few smaller pieces were found in nearby gardens.

It is the first-ever carbonaceous chondrite meteorite – the oldest class of meteorites, which contain materials present during the formation of the solar system – to have been found in the UK. Crucially, it was collected within hours of being detected, before any rainfall, and analysed almost immediately, making it a rare uncontaminated specimen.

The incoming meteorite was also recorded by 16 dedicated meteor cameras, and numerous doorbell and dashcam videos, meaning that scientists could produce an accurate trajectory of where it came from in the solar system. By contrast, most of the 70,000 known meteorites have been found without their impact being recorded – in some cases millions of years after they landed. “They’re just random rocks that have come to us from space,” said King.

The analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, concludes that the meteorite originated from an asteroid body somewhere near Jupiter. The research also found that the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in the water closely resembled the composition of water on Earth.

“Meteorites like Winchcombe are a pretty good match [to] the water in the Earth’s oceans and suggests asteroids were the main source of water,” said King.

Extracts from the Winchcombe meteorite also contain extraterrestrial amino acids – prebiotic molecules that are fundamental building blocks for the origin of life.

As the composition of the Winchcombe meteorite is so pristinely preserved, the analysis suggests that similar asteroids have played a significant role in delivering the ingredients needed to kickstart oceans and life on early Earth.

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