meteorites tagged posts

Artist’s rendering of the space collision 466 million years ago that gave rise to many of the meteorites falling today. Credit: © Don Davis, Southwest Research Institute.

466 million years ago, there was a giant collision in outer space. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. But what kinds of meteorites were making their way to Earth before that collision? In a new study in Nature Astronomy, scientists have tackled that question by creating the first reconstruction of the distribution of meteorite types before the collision. They discovered that most of the meteorites we see today are rare, while many meteorites that are rare today were common before the collision.

Philipp Heck of The Fie...

Chondrules — spherical beads of previously molten material — found in CB chondrites were formed by ultra-high-speed collisions. New research suggests that the presence of the planet Jupiter near the asteroid belt could create the right conditions for these impacts. That helps constrain the timing for Jupiter’s formation and migration. The study suggests that Jupiter must have been at full size when the chondrules formed, which was about 5 million years after the first solar system solids appeared. Credit: Alexander Krot, University of Hawai’i Manoa

A peculiar class of meteorites has offered scientists new clues about when the planet Jupiter took shape and wandered through the solar system...

Meteorite accumulation at Victoria Crater. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Stirling

The lack of liquid water on the surface of Mars today has been demonstrated by new evidence in the form of meteorites on Mars.In a study led by the University of Stirling, an international team of researchers has found the lack of rust on the meteorites indicates that Mars is incredibly dry, and has been that way for millions of years.The discovery provides vital insight into the planet’s current environment and shows how difficult it would be for life to exist on Mars today.

Dr Christian Schröder, Lecturer in Environmental Science and Planetary Exploration at the University of Stirling and Science Team Collaborator for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity mission, said: “Evidence shows that more ...

Images of one of the many pieces of opal found in meteorite EET 83309. At top right is a backscattered electron image (the long thin dark object is opal). At bottom left is an image of silica concentrations in opal and surrounding meteoritic minerals. At top left is an image of oxygen concentrations in opal and surrounding minerals. At bottom right is an image nickel concentrations in opal and surrounding minerals. Credit: H. Downes

Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opal in a meteorite found in Antarctica, a result that demonstrates that meteorites delivered water ice to asteroids early in the history of the solar system. Led by Professor Hilary Downes of Birkbeck College London, the team announce their results at the National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham on Monday 27 June.