Cosmochemists have found that interstellar iron and carbon form a kind of linked molecule that cloaks the iron – and helps stabilize large carbon molecules. Astrophysicists know that iron is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, after lightweight elements such as hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Iron is most commonly found in gaseous form in stars such as the Sun, and in more condensed form in planets such as Earth.
Iron in interstellar environments should also be common...
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January 10, 2018,
Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology
Researchers Jan Kramers and Georgy Belyanin found mineral compounds unlike anything on Earth, or in known meteorites or comets, in these fragments from the Hypatia stone, which was picked up in south-west Egypt in the Libyan Desert Glass Field. Credit: Dr Mario di Martino, INAF Osservatorio Astrofysico di Torino
Analyses on a small pebble in south-west Egypt cast significant questions on a widely-held view about the primitive pre-solar dust cloud which our Sun, Earth and other planets were formed from. Researchers found exotic micro-mineral compounds in the ‘Hypatia’ stone that are not known to occur on Earth, elsewhere in our solar system, or in known meteorites or comets.
In 2013, researchers announced that a pebble found in south-west Egypt, was definitely not from Earth...
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