How many meteorites falling on the planet in a year? According to experts, their number varies in the region of 5-6 tonnes per day, which is about 2 thousand tons per year. A lot, right? However, for the first time the fall of the meteorite on the planet was recorded in 1790. At that time the reports of eyewitnesses about the objects that fell from the heavens, was often perceived by scientists as nonsense. In our days, these cosmic Wanderers though sometimes entail devastating consequences, intruding into the Earth’s atmosphere, yet are of great interest to scientists. So, it was recently discovered mineral, not previously encountered in nature. He was locked inside a meteorite Wedderburn, which was discovered in Australia in 1951.
It looks like the meteorite Wedderburn
What is a meteorite?
Let’s start with the fact that between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt — the small celestial bodies that move in orbit around the Sun. The meteor called a stone and iron fragments of celestial bodies, such as asteroids and comets that hit our planet. The size of the meteorite can be very tiny and incredibly great.
The biggest meteorite in the world is the hoba meteorite. He fell to the territory of Namibia (Africa) over 80 thousand years ago and was discovered in 1920. The weight of this beauty is over 60 tons, and a diameter of over three meters. Goba 84% consists of iron, making it the largest nugget of this metal on Earth. To discuss the large and small meteorites in our Telegram chat
The hoba meteorite in person
Note that most of the objects coming to visit our planet, vaporized in the atmosphere, but some larger flies to the Ground. If the route of the meteor crosses the earth’s orbit, it on huge speed rushes to the Earth’s atmosphere. We observe these objects as meteors or shooting stars.
The picture shows a meteor in the sky over the Kuzbass
Found in the meteorite Wedderburn?
In 1951 in the Australian Outback near the town of Wedderburn was discovered meteorite from red and black iron, weighing 210 grams. According to planetary scientist Jeffrey Bonina from the Australian national University, the meteorite was formed inside the molten core of the planet millions of years ago.
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Since the discovery of the meteorite was under the watchful gaze of scientists who wish to determine its composition. In 2018, Chi MA of Caltech and Alan ruby from the University of California in Los Angeles has requested a sample of the meteorite. Scientists wanted to find out if it contains rare minerals.
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In their analysis, the researchers found that the meteorite contains edscott. Is a mineral that is formed during the smelting of iron, but can be found in nature for the first time. However, if a scientist fails to detect the mineral formed in a natural environment, that official name it gets. MA and Rubin were able to identify edscott in the rock, where the mineral was formed in a natural way. The name of edscott was in honor of Edward R. D. Scott, the pioneer of cosmochimica of the University of Hawaii, for his outstanding contribution to the study of meteorites.
What else is found in meteorites?
Researchers believe that the core of an ancient planet from which the meteorite Wedderburn, was melted. Hot metal dripped into the center of the planet, and high temperature and pressure probably made edscott. Probably, at some point, the planet collided with another celestial body after which he was destroyed and its debris thrown into space. As a result, one of the fragments — the meteorite Wedderburn became the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. In the end something hit him with the orbital path and he crashed to the Ground.
The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
Edscott is just one of a number of minerals have been discovered in meteorites. Last year, Russian scientists announced the discovery of Wakita, which was discovered in an iron meteorite gold color. He fell near the village of Uakit in Siberia. In 2017, three new mineral found in meteorite Khatyrskoe, samples of which were discovered in 1979 and 2011. How long do you think minerals we have to find?