New Evidence That Giant Asteroid Impacts Created the Continents
New research has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that Earth’s continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts, which were especially common during the first billion…
Meteorites
Unusual Microcrystals Discovered in Meteorite Dust
The strange carbon microcrystals have been studied by scientists from Chelyabinsk State University. On February 15, 2013, above Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Southern Urals, the biggest…
4.5-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite Reveals Secrets of Earth’s Origins
What do Mars and Iceland have in common? These days, not so much. However, more than 4.5 billion years ago, it’s possible the Red Planet…
Extraterrestrial Stone Could Be First Evidence on Earth of Supernova Ia Explosion
New chemistry ‘forensics’ indicates that the stone named Hypatia from the Egyptian desert could be the first physical evidence found on Earth of a supernova…
Life Unlikely: Meteorite From Mars Indicates Limited Water Circulation Late in the History of the Red Planet
A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has investigated a meteorite from Mars using neutron and X-ray tomography. The technology, which will likely…
New Discovery Shows the Blueprint for Life May Have Been Generated in Asteroids
Using new analyses, scientists have just found the last two of the five informational units of DNA and RNA that had yet to be discovered…
Mimicking Extreme Impacts To Learn How Minerals Are Affected by Meteorite Collisions
“Fingerprinting” Minerals To Better Understand How They Are Affected by Meteorite Collisions Researchers mimicked these extreme impacts in the lab and discovered new details about…
As Many as 300,000 Meteorites Await Discovery in Antarctica
Finding Meteorite Hotspots in Antarctica As many as 300,000 meteorites await discovery atop the continent’s ice, and now scientists have a map showing where to…
Chelyabinsk Meteorite: Microscopic View on Asteroid Collisions Could Help Us Understand Planet Formation
A new way of dating collisions between asteroids and planetary bodies throughout our Solar System’s history could help scientists reconstruct how and when planets were…
Secondary Cratering Discovered on Earth: The Wyoming Impact Crater Field
Several dozen small impact craters, 10–70-m in size, have been discovered in southeastern Wyoming. A team of U.S. and German geoscientists found these ancient…
Ancient Space Dust Analysis Could Solve Mystery of Origins of Earth’s Water
An international team of scientists may have solved a key mystery about the origins of Earth’s water, after uncovering persuasive new evidence pointing to an…
The Search for Life on Mars: Organic Molecules in Martian Meteorite Not From Aliens
Martian meteorite’s organic materials origin not biological, formed by geochemical interactions between water and rock. The search for life on Mars can teach us about…
Size Doesn’t Matter: How Deadly a Meteorite Impact Is Depends on Rock Composition
A new study has found that the mineralogy of the rocks that a meteorite hits, rather than the size of the impact, determines how deadly…
Analyzing Meteorites To Track Down the Forces That Shaped Our Solar System’s Evolution
Meteorites are remnants of the building blocks that formed Earth and the other planets orbiting our Sun. Recent analysis of their isotopic makeup led by…
We Asked a NASA Expert: When Was the Last Time an Asteroid Hit Earth? [Video]
When was the last time an asteroid hit Earth? Today! But it was almost definitely very small. Small asteroids and other tiny dust and particles…
NASA’s Mars Insight Lander Uses Wind-Induced Vibrations To Reveal the Red Planet’s Subsurface Layers
Seismic data collected in Elysium Planitia, the second largest volcanic region on Mars, suggest the presence of a shallow sedimentary layer sandwiched between lava flows…
Stellar Fossils in Pristine Meteorites Point to Ancient Stars That Died Before the Sun Formed
Some pristine meteorites contain a record of the original building blocks of the solar system, including grains that formed in ancient stars that died before…
Dashcam Detective Work Leads to Recovery of Space Rocks From Slovenia Fireball
On February 28, 2020, at 10:30 CET, hundreds of people across Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, and Hungary observed a bright ball of light hurtling across…
