Martian Meteorite Hunters: Paving the Way for Future Rovers To Search for Meteorites on Mars
A team at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London is paving the way for future rovers to search for meteorites on Mars. The scientists are…
Meteorites
Rare 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Could Hold Secrets to Life on Earth
Scientists are set to uncover the secrets of a rare meteorite and possibly the origins of oceans and life on Earth, thanks to Science and…
Early Earth Was Bombarded by Barrage of City-Sized Asteroids – Perhaps 10x More Huge Impactors Than Thought
Scientists know that the Earth was bombarded by huge impactors in distant time, but a new analysis suggests that the number of these impacts may…
Sculpted by Starlight: An Unusual Meteorite Witness to the Solar System’s Birth
Researchers use unusual meteorite to gain insight into our solar system’s past, present. In 2011, scientists confirmed a suspicion: There was a split in the…
Space Chemistry Billions of Years Ago: Polymers in Meteorites Provide Clues to Early Solar System
A group of polymers across several members of the oldest meteorite class, the CV3 type, shed light on space chemistry as early as 12.5 billion…
CO2-Rich Liquid Water Discovered in Ancient Meteorite – From an Asteroid That Formed 4.6 Billion Years Ago
Scientists detect small pockets of carbon dioxide-rich liquid water in a meteorite dating from the early solar system. By studying ancient meteorite fragments, scientists can…
Earth’s Meteorite Impacts Tracked Over Past 500 Million Years
For the first time, a unique study conducted at Lund University in Sweden has tracked the meteorite flux to Earth over the past 500 million…
Freak Coincidence: The Curious Incident of Swarm and Sprites in the Night-Time
We are all familiar with the bolts of lightning that accompany heavy storms. While these flashes originate in storm clouds and strike downwards, a much…
Solar Wind From the Center of the Earth: Solar Noble Gases in Metal of an Iron Meteorite
Model for the Earth’s core: Heidelberg researchers verify presence of solar noble gases in metal of an iron meteorite. High-precision noble gas analyses indicate that…
Investigating Baked Meteorites Yields Clues to Planetary Atmospheres
The gases released from meteorite samples heated in a high-temperature furnace can tell scientists about the initial composition of the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. In…
Meteorites Reveal Ancient Magnetic Record of Protoplanet Churn
The signatures of ancient magnetic fields in meteorites support an extended time frame for the cooling of molten protoplanetary cores. If you stumble upon an…
Asteroid That Hit Botswana in 2018 Likely Originated From Vesta
An international team of researchers searched for pieces of a small asteroid tracked in space and then observed to impact Botswana on June 2, 2018….
Micrometeorites: More Than 5,000 Tons of Extraterrestrial Dust Falls to Earth Each Year
Every year, our planet encounters dust from comets and asteroids. These interplanetary dust particles pass through our atmosphere and give rise to shooting stars. Some…
Radioactivity in Meteorites Sheds Light on Origin of Heaviest Elements in Our Solar System
Meteorites Remember Conditions of Stellar Explosions A team of international researchers went back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to…
The Red Comb: Namib Desert Bears Scar From Meteor Impact
In the vastness of one of the world’s oldest deserts lies a relatively recent geologic feature: the Roter Kamm crater (“Red Comb” in German). An…
Oldest Carbonates in the Solar System – Heidelberg Ion Probe Used to Date Flensburg Meteorite
A meteorite that fell in northern Germany in 2019 contains carbonates which are among the oldest in the solar system; it also evidences the earliest…
NASA Astromaterials 3D Explorer: Rocks From Other Worlds Now Virtually Available
NASA’s astromaterials sample collections, which include a library of Apollo lunar and Antarctic meteorite samples, are now offered online through a new virtual exploration tool…
Meteorite Discovery: Key Building Block for Organic Molecules
Scientists from Japan and NASA have confirmed the presence in meteorites of a key organic molecule that may have been used to build other organic…