A small meteor planet could alter our understanding of asteroids


Scientists have released an analysis of meteorite fragments collected after a collision with Earth near an asteroid in 2008. They show that the parent asteroid was giant, and the results suggest that special, water-holding type asteroids may be larger and may have different mineral compositions than previously thought.

The study had findings Published this week See in the Journal of Nature Astronomy and the chemical composition of the sliver of those meteorite fragments.

The story of the fragments begins in October 2008, when scientists became aware of a planet on its way to collide with Earth. They knew that most of the rock would burn up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, and the remains, if any, would fall into the wind-filled sands of the Nubian desert. It will provide a unique opportunity for an international team of researchers, NASA scientists, to anticipate the arrival of rocks and then comb the sand for any surviving piece.

Although the asteroid was relatively small – weighing only nine tons – it had a detritus minuscule; Less than 8.8 pounds (4 kilograms) Meteors were collected from the desert. He was collectively called Almahata Sita after the nearest railway station. It was the first time a planet had appeared and the remains of its meteorites had since been collected.

Since its recovery, different fragments of Almahata Sita have been analyzed, revealing information about the origin and chemical composition of different parts of the planet. Meteorite samples studied by the teamThe dubbed AHS202 was so small that you could attach 10 copies of it to the nailhead, but it was a guest space, the original point before joining the part with the rocky mass of Almahatta Sita. The team used infrared and X-ray light to study the sample. They found that the fragment is a carbonaceous condensate, a type of meteorite that formed in the early days of the solar system, and that brought water to Earth, which stimulates all of these … Carbonaceous condensates Was not supposed to be able to come from a diameter of about 62 miles (100 kilometers).

But researchers found a vibrating substance in its Eti-Bitsy piece, a mineral that required a lot of pressure to form. The presence of tremolite in the sample indicates that the diameter of the original asteroid is in the range 398 to 1,119 miles (over 640 to 1,800 kilometers), The largest ce object wheel placed in Ceres’s wheelhouseA dwarf planet, in factIn the asteroid belt.

“This is part of the evidence for very large parents that we don’t already know exists,” said Vicky Hamilton, a staff scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and lead author of a recent paper. Of Vibrating in carbonaceous chondrite. “The fact that there is no other evidence of it in our meteorite collection helps to confirm that we already have suspicions that the meteorites we find on Earth are biased specimens.”

Since asteroids smoke through space, they are bound to interact with other bodies. These associations of metals and minerals come together and break down as their path continues. When a meteorite is actually found on Earth, it is a globally collected collection of space stories, and the only way to read it is to do a whole bunch of analysis.

“You have one group of scientists looking at one part of a meteorite and another group looking at another part of the same meteorite, and you will see two different parts of the solar system’s history,” Hamilton said.

In this way Hamilton’s sliver could speak to some of the roots on a larger planet, while Almahata could point to another part of Sita. One-time existence of proto-planet. What the electroscopy work team has recently done is a reverse engineering, moving beyond what seems to be a typical space like in its typical story, in which case it refers to a giant parent planet. It’s like finding a small piece on your kitchen counter – it can be from anywhere – but looking at it chemically can tell you the temperature and pressure conditions that caused it to rise, and whether that small piece really came from this morning’s toast. That’s last week’s birthday cake.

Although much smaller than other types of asteroids, new information about carbonaceous condensates could fall from the sky at any time. It’s just a matter of whether the meteor experts are awake or lucky – enough to see them.

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