Quick recovery retrieval and analysis Releases a meteorite that fell on a frozen lake in Michigan two years ago Main role These rocks were played Delivered basic building blocks for life on Earth.
As the meteor was falling towards Our planet, on January 16, 2018, at a speed of 1,000,000,000 miles per hour, its bright fireball can be seen in parts of the US Midwest and parts of Ontario. Hundreds of witnesses were private in the lightshow, one of which was captured by multiple security cameras.
And with that, The race was on to get the meteor back as quickly as possible. Spending more time on the surface, and with potential exposure to water, the more The meteorite will become contaminated, preventing scientists from studying the rock from being in space. The big prize, as it were, is the recovery of ancient, chaotic extraterrestrial organic compounds, i.e. carbon-based Molecules that form within the parent planet.
“As soon as you get water, the metal starts to cut, and minerals like olivine change,” Philip Hack, curator of the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of a new paper describing the subject of meteorites, said in an email. “Water also carries contaminants through many cracks that are usually caused by crosscross meteors – cracks forming when meteorites exit the planet during a previous impact event.”
Using NASA’s weather radar, meteor hunters find the meteor’s velocity and path, allowing them to pinpoint the possible location of a fallen object. In less than 48 hours, a One of the private meteor hunters named Robert Ward 0.8-ounce (22-)G) limeThat Of Meteors resting on stationary Lake Strawberry, near Hamburg Michigan. Ward and Private Collector Terry Boudreaux At the Field Museum in Chicago, Hamburg decided to donate and participate soon in the form of a meteor.
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“This study is a beautiful example of how civic scientists like Boudreux and Ward can make meaningful contributions to science in collaboration with scientific organizations,” said Eva Hack, an associate professor at the University of Chicago. “Hamburg is one of the very few meteors that was quickly recovered from a stable surface and delivered to scientific institutions, and that makes this meteorite remarkable.”
Some other small pieces of the meteorite were found again on the same day, while an additional 13 pieces were found in the two weeks of the fall, according to a new paper published today in Meteorology and Astronomy.
Now in possession of the rock, Heck went to study it with Jennica Greer, a graduate student at the University of Chicago.. They Used a variety of methods including weather radar, microscopy, spectroscopy, various types of mass spectrometry, magnetometry and CT scanning.
The Hamburg meteorite was classified as Hch chondrite, which is relatively rare, as only %% of all meteorites currently on Earth belong to this group. H4 condensates are interesting because they were blasted by heat when they were being taken out. Their parent planet. That means some of the original components, such as the condrules (for which these rocks are named), are “still preserved and visible,” Hack said, adding that the condrules are strong drops of molten rock.
The meteorite’s rapid recovery is paid for, as the team was able to analyze a wide variety of disordered organic compounds. Meteors like these can help explain how these compounds reached Earth during its ancient period. Importantly, these compounds are not a form of extraterrestrial life, nor are they biomarkers, but they are some of the basic elements from which life emerged billions of years ago.
In total the team found 2,600 different organics Compounds In the Hamburg meteorite
“These compounds form in parental asteroids only after their formation, It was warm even when it was still present in the early solar system with excitement and decay of radioactive elements, ”explains Heck. “Despite some meteorites, such as carbonaceous chondrites, which are a thousand times richer than organisms, these common chondrite meteorites were richer than organisms, supporting the hypothesis that meteors played an important role in delivering organic compounds to early Earth. ”
because The Hamburg meteorite was quickly recovered, Experienced it Minimal maliciousness, but hack the only true un saidContaminated samples will be collected directly from asteroids, such as recently created samples NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft And Hybusa 2 investigation of JXA.
Heck said, “It will be interesting to compare meteorites with samples returning from the mission.
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