A meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 is home to
at least two minerals that are not found on our planet. The two minerals were
identified by researchers at the University of Alberta, a press release said.
Tons of space material enters the Earth's atmosphere
every day and burn up instantly. Very few actually survive the journey through
the atmosphere and hit the ground, after which these space rocks are referred
to as meteorites.
Large meteorites are rare but do occur, such as the
one that fell near the town of El Ali in Somalia a couple of years ago. The
celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes) and yet is the
ninth-largest meteorite ever found.
Two new minerals in the meteorite
A small piece of the meteorite weighing about 2.5
ounces (70 grams) was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, and
the researchers found two minerals that are not found on Earth. "Whenever
you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the
chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found before," said
Chris Herd, a professor at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as
well as the curator of the Meteorite Collection at the university.
Working with researchers at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and California Insitute of Technology, Herd has
classified the meteorite as an Iron IAB complex, which is composed of
meteoritic iron and silicate inclusions.
Herd's research was also aided by the Electron
Microprobe Laboratory at the University of Alberta, where an initial analysis
revealed the presence of the two minerals. Research of this type usually takes
a considerable amount of work to confirm the presence of a new mineral.
However, in this case, the two minerals identified had been synthetically created
before, so the researchers could match their compositions quickly to confirm
their discovery.
Interestingly, there is a third new mineral that is
under consideration, and its presence can only be confirmed after further
analysis of completed.
Names of the minerals
The two minerals confirmed so far have been dubbed
elaliite and elkinstantonite. The first name comes from El Ali, the nearest
town where the meteorite was found. The second, however, is a dedication to
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a researcher at Arizona State University's School of Earth
and Space Exploration.
"Lindy has done a lot of work on how the cores
of planets form, how these iron-nickel cores form, and the closest analog we
have are iron meteorites," Herd added in the press release. "So it
made sense to name a mineral after her and recognize her contributions to
science."
Elkins-Tanton is the principal investigator of
NASA's upcoming Psyche mission that will send a probe to the Psyche, a mineral
asteroid, in a bid to understand the origins of the planets of our solar
system.
However, this could also be the last we hear about the El Ali meteorite since the celestial rock has reportedly been moved to China in search of a potential buyer. If sold, whether the buyer will allow further samples to be taken for scientific analysis remains unknown for now.
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