blue salt crystal from meteorites tagged posts

A blue crystal recovered from a meteorite that fell near Morocco in 1998. The scale bar represents 200 microns (millionths of a meter). Credit: Queenie Chan/The Open University, U.K.

Study also suggests dwarf planet in asteroid belt may be a source of rich organic matter. A detailed study of blue salt crystals found in two meteorites that crashed to Earth – which included X-ray experiments found that they contain both liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds including hydrocarbons and amino acids. A detailed study of the chemical makeup within the tiny crystals, which included results from X-ray experiments also found evidence for the pair’s past intermingling and likely parents...