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…
Meteorites
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…
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…
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…